


Bedroom Talks

by Bluefire510



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: 2000s, 5+1 Things, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Character Development, Character Study, F/M, Family Issues, Fluff and Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Late Night Conversations, More profanity than Disney would have preferred, Music, Panic Attacks, Reference to early 2000s, Slow Burn, Teen Romance, Zach's POV, warning: anxiety and panic attacks described in detail
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 33,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24778843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluefire510/pseuds/Bluefire510
Summary: 5 times Magenta visits Zach via the bedroom window and the 1 time it happened vice versa. Magenta x Zach GuineaGlow?'It wasn't until he heard a small high pitch chime right behind him that he instinctively did what was probably his third anxious 180 that night and immediately stomped his foot on wherever he saw movement, letting out an impromptu battle cry, his voice cracking and his makeshift bat raised in the air. But to his surprise, his foot caught onto a purple composition book rather than the cape of a mysterious assailant and -even more to his surprise- seeing a small black guinea pig with purple highlights dragging the book along'...
Relationships: Magenta/Zach (Sky High)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	1. The First Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach is a total musichead but must learn how to defend himself against a mysterious intruder...

Chapter 1 'The First Visit'

A couple clicks left with his mouse was all it took and then he would be live.

It was currently about 9 on a Thursday night, he and his friends had wrapped on their weekly group study session some hours ago, so he managed to get his homework done tonight, leaving ample enough time to set his stuff up. Zach had been trying to hype himself up for the past weeks in setting up his first SHOUTcast.

The resident glow stick had been carefully curating his playlist on his computer for his debut stream. Ethan had even stayed behind a bit to help him deal with the tech jargon again: encoder this, IP address that-

Spinning around his desk chair, he took in the sight of his library of music set up in basically floor- to-ceiling shelving, illuminated by the warm light of his desk lamp.

He was a bit of an eclectic collector- he got Dizzy Gillespie and the Pointer Sisters stored among his box of records on the lower levels but then he got cassettes for bands like and New Order in the middle, and more of the recent stuff like Simple Plan and Snoop Dogg in newly bought, plastic wrapped CD cases. That reminded him to grab the new Eminem album the next time he was at the mall…

Music was his life, ever since he was little. It was something that he got from his mom, who had gifted him some of her favorites, the origin of the collection he had come to expand over the few years. He stared wistfully at the box of records, contemplating on making a switch in the line up to include that one Santo and Johnny song he knew she liked- the one he could never remember since it was in Spanish.

He swiveled back around to face his computer again. He grabbed the mouse, preparing to launch his stream.

_Here we go._

He took a deep breath and… ended up closing out of the window entirely.

"Nope, nope, nope," he stood up and started pacing around the room, "Can't do it. Nope. Not yet." He had been hyping himself up for weeks. For weeks. Because he had tried to launch his stream weeks ago and the same thing would happen every Thursday night at around 9, with the same doubts plaguing his mind.

He had a very unique taste in music. Maybe a little too unique? He often wondered. He was often written off as a guy who was solely into hip-hop and rap, but he held much respect for the greats that came before- in all different genres, in fact! It was tough. He wanted to play everything. A new genre every night. A blending of two genres, even? Fuck. That might not work. It was hard to build an audience when he didn't know who the fuck he was or what to play. People wanted consistency these days.

What if someone from school found his SHOUTcast? He was already a joke to plenty of the student body, despite what had happened at Homecoming. It was pretty much the reason he still didn't have a Myspace yet, even though it was the hub for music exposure. And if he had it his way, he would make sure there wasn't anything anybody could tease him about ever again. And he had that control- he could make sure nobody could hear his music.

Well, not his music- that would be the dream though- to produce. Maybe it could solve his genre-hopping if he could just make something else different all together and nobody could tell him if it was right or wrong…

Well someone could still tell him it sucks.

Zach stopped pacing and made his way back to his computer.

And he pressed play and had the whole room filled with Orange Juice's funky bass riffs. _Would be a waste to leave the songs unplayed_ , he mused. Even though it seemed counterintuitive to solve his problem (music) with even more music, it was still cathartic.

He closed his eyes, bobbed his head, and started spinning around to the sound of Edwyn Collins' singing. He preferred this sound over his solo career, in his opinion.

He started doing his own rendition of the running-man in the middle of the room when he heard a thunk and a rustling noise coming from near his bed.

The tall boy immediately stiffened and straightened up, hoping his ears were deceiving him, maybe confusing the bubbly beats of OJ with the sounds of an intruder? But his hearing had grown keen enough to filter through the music to listen for his dad's footsteps coming up the stairs in case he had to quickly shut it off before he came into his room and yelled for him to.

He definitely heard something was off. But just in case it was a threat, since he did go to a school for superheroes after all, he turned to the direction of the noise.

Quietly, he picked up the poster canister that had been propped up against his music shelves and held it up like a bat, stalking towards his bed. It was in the left hand corner of his room, nestled against the wall where the window was, positioned near the foot of his bed.

Maybe it had been the branch scratching at the window he heard? But a branch making a thunk sound? But he couldn't turn down the music to check for more noises, he didn't want to alert whoever or whatever that he was on to them.

All of the sudden the same rustling came from the spot where he had just come from, all the way on the opposite side of his room. He spun around again, now knowing for sure there was something in here with him. He crept closer to that corner of the room, nearly tripping on the random articles of clothing scattered all over his floor.

He wanted to try for the closet, located on the wall adjacent to the one where his shelves were at, to seek out this intruder. It was better to close in now or else they would simply move to another corner of the room again- how without him seeing he had yet to figure out.

It wasn't until he heard a small high pitch chime right behind him that he instinctively did what was probably his third anxious 180 that night and immediately stomped his foot on wherever he saw movement, letting out an impromptu battle cry, his voice cracking and his makeshift bat raised in the air.

But to his surprise, his foot caught onto a purple composition book rather than the cape of a mysterious assailant and -even more to his surprise- seeing a small black guinea pig with purple highlights dragging the book along.

"The fu-!" His expletive cut short when he heard heavy footsteps heading for his room. The guinea pig dashed under the bed just in time for Zach's dad to enter and flip the light switch on.

"Zachary James, what have I told you about making noise at this time of night?" His dad looked at him sternly, arms crossed.

Zach awkwardly hid the poster canister behind his back. Head lowered not making eye contact, "Not to. But I thought I saw something-"

"And your response was to shout like a maniac?"

"Yeah-no... " Zach winced, "Sorry dad, won't happen again."

"Good," he said curtly, while looking around the room, as if to look at something else to yell at him about. His eyes roamed around the floor before landing on the composition book Zach was stepping on, "Clean up your room before you go to bed. And turn that stuff off, understand?"

"Yes sir," And as soon as he arrived, his dad was out the door without a 'goodnight' or even shutting his lights off. Typical. Zach swiped at the light switch and the harsh recess lights were replaced by the homey ambiance created by his lamp. He fell against the door clutching the tube to his chest, sighing.

A couple beats passed before a very human Magenta emerged from under his bed. He didn't know what was worse, for Magenta to hear his squeaky battle cry or hear the reprimanding he got from his dad.

"Jesus, what a douchebag,"

He closed his eyes wanting to be anywhere but here. Yep, _definitely the dad thing_ , he thought. Then he was brought back to the matter at hand, "What the hell are you doing here?"

She crawled over to the composition book, as if she were still a guinea pig, and plucked it off the floor as she stood up, "Left this here from study group tonight."

"And you thought to sneak into my room?" he asked in disbelief. He looked around, "Like, Like how did you even-?"

Magenta pointed to the window, as if it gave a complete answer. His room was on the second floor. It just left more questions on how she got up here.

The shapeshifter then began flipping through the book and made her way to the further right corner of his room where his bean bags were and took a seat.

Zach dropped the canister and ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm down from whatever the fuck just happened in the span of the past few minutes.

He still didn't understand Magenta sometimes. In fact, there was a lot he didn't know about her, despite them being friends since freshman year started and despite them being in the same math class as each other. It had been a month since they had danced together at Homecoming, when she threw him a bone and danced with him. But that had been a one off and it was an unspoken agreement that they were friends. Even though Zach had shown immense interest in her.

He was still very much interested in her. Very much so. But he wasn't sure how to broach that topic since he still enjoyed being friends, even though they didn't get to talk much one on one a lot since they were always in a group.

Even in their Algebra class they barely talk, but that was mostly due to Magenta either cutting the last 20 minutes or just not showing up at all for reasons he nor their friends knew.

So the fact that she was in his room, just her and no Ethan, Layla or Will, instantly made him feel like an awkward host.

"Hm… who's on right now?" The shapeshifter inquired all of the sudden, eyes not leaving the book.

Zach realized his playlist was still going on and he walked over to lower the volume, not wanting to get in trouble with his dad for the second time that night. He cocked his head to the side to hear that 80's new wave turned into 90's hip-hop with a bit of a reggae vibe, "Uh…The Fugees." he identified.

"It sounds familiar," She closed the book, leaving it on the bean bag, then went to observe his music collection. She hadn't done this earlier in the night during their study session or any of the other times they would meet up in here, often getting right down to business and pulling out the history textbook to go over what comic book hero strategy they were supposed to know before their test the following day.

"Uh yeah," Zach scratched the back of head, leaning against his desk, "You-you might have heard the one by Roberta Flack...uh back in like the '70s and uh-," _Why was he so nervous?_ Maybe it was the fact that a cute girl was within close proximity to him and just casually pursuing the collection he spent most of his life creating?

"Um… well… It's kinda funny since what you're hearing now is a cover of Flack's song when actually, Flack's version was a cover too. Kinda sucked that the person who originally helped make the song wasn't the one who made it big on the charts though."

Magenta turned her head to glance up at him, "I guess the song was just too big for one person to sing."

Zach grinned, "Exactly. I mean sometimes it's hard to wrap your head around the idea of hearing someone besides Freddie Mercury wailing on 'Somebody to Love' or even-"

"-Brittney Spears singing 'Oops I Did it Again?'" Magenta held up the artist's CD she had plucked from his collection. A hint of an amused smile was pulling on the edge of her lips.

"It's-It's catchy!" He suddenly grabbed the CD from her and returned to the upper shelf where it belonged, "She single-handedly ushered in a new era of pop music, Maj."

He could hear the shapeshifter trying really hard not to laugh, "I mean, I can't argue with that."

"I mean," Zach tried to get back to the point he was making, "What I'm saying is that, the song, 'Killing Me Softly'-" He reached over to grab the Fugees album since he was already up there returning Brittney Spears and handed it to Magenta who he now realized he had gotten really close to.

"Um… " he accidentally backed up into the shelves in an attempt to keep a respectable distance, "l-like the lifespan of the song could just go on because of people constantly remixing it and re-releasing it to the public. For my mom, it was Roberta Flack's version she had grown up on. For me," He tapped on the cover in Magenta's hands, "It was Lauryn Hill's,"

"The song could be on the charts again one day, and my kids could be hearing a completely different version of the song. Like think of the possibilities for what a song can be to people if artists were more willing to separate themselves from the songs- then the song switches hands and could just, like outlive them."

Magenta hummed and for a second Zach thought he kinda made an ass of himself just harping on and on about the history of some song from the '70s.

But the thing was, it wasn't just some song. None of the music he had on his shelf were just some songs. These songs were the cornerstones of human history! And he was ready to defend every single song he had stored in his room, on his computer, and he shouldn't care if Magenta liked it or understood whatever the fuck he was saying-

"That's actually really cool,"

"Really?" Zach nearly toppled over the shelf before collecting himself, "Um, I mean… you think so?"

Magenta nodded, "Yeah. It's hard to come by, you know, the idea of something that lasts. I like it."

Zach glanced at the box of records, "Me too," It grew quiet for a couple of minutes, apart from the music playing on his computer. During that time, Magenta strode over to his desk area and plopped onto his chair, _The Score_ still in her possession, "Uh.. what do you listen to?" he inquired.

The girl spun around in the seat, "Why don't you take a guess?"

"I'd rather not,"

"Are you afraid of offending me?" He took in the girl decked out in combat boots and the pink camo and mesh shirt with striped arm warmers lounging around in his chair giving him a pointed look. He wasn't sure how to answer that (or if there was a right answer to begin with).

Also, he didn't like making assumptions about people, especially about their music taste. From his experience, a person's taste in music could be so diverse and nuanced and to box them into one genre was, like rejecting any other aspects of their personality.

He wanted the opportunity to get to know Magenta more before he could accurately gauge her music taste.

"Look it's fine. I really wanna know what you think,"

Zach blew out sigh. Considering how little he knew Magenta, this could be a disastrous reading, "I really… really wanna say anything that plays at Hot Topic. But that's too easy. Though I won't put it past you if you did like some Nine-Inch Nails or Korn or something..."

The girl made a noncommittal sound but gestured for him to keep going, "And I wanna say you like Hilary Duff or Kelly Clarkson, but somehow that's also kinda predictable too," Zach paused, "I got it. Weezer. You have to like Weezer, right?"

Magenta let out a sigh and kicked at his shin good-naturedly, "Everyone and their kid brothers like Weezer, Glowworm."

"Hey, I was right though!" She chuckled slightly, making Zach follow in suit.

It wasn't often that he heard Magenta laugh. Oftentimes what would earn her amusement would be utter humiliation… like him clad in only his boxers in front of the whole class (he would get red just thinking about the incident). Or like the time when Warren and Will whooped Lash and Speed's asses during Save the Citizen.

"Y-Yeah. You're right though I do have shit like Three Days Grace on Myspace. I mean the Hot Topic conjecture," she gestured to herself, "Is not entirely baseless. Also a little tidbit: girls who dress like me have or have had a Hilary Duff CD in their possession and whoever tells you any different are fucking liars. But dude," she sighed, "No Doubt? Letters to Cleo?"

Zach groaned, "Of course. Of course you like Letters to Cleo."

"Do you have something against Letters to Cleo?" she narrowed her eyes while crossing her arms but clearly not emitting her usual level of intimidation. Her smirk was more on the playful side rather than the threatening side too.

He held his hands up in a yielding and good natured manner, and still giggling, "I'm not making fun. I don't make fun-"

"-Really? You kinda sound like you-"

"-I was just gonna say this one thing-"

"-that's rich coming from a guy with a Moby album-"

"-Now wait just a minute," Zach held up a finger, "You did not just diss Moby."

"His stuff sounds like what an acid trip would feel like," She asserted with hand gestures, fully grinning now. "Old stuff or new stuff?"

"I don't know I only really heard the Eurotrash dance trance whatever,"

Zach put his hand to his heart, feigning deep offense but couldn't manage to keep up with the facade with all the laughing he was just doing in their fake argument, "Wow. Just wow. I'm wounded, Maj."

"Sorry, Glowworm. There needed to be an intervention," She then went on to mimic Rachel Leigh Cook in that one commercial, pretending she was holding an imaginary egg and setting it down on Zach's desk, "This is your brain," Using the album in her hands, she faked smashing the egg, "This is your brain on Moby."

"Unbelievable. I get it. But what I was trying to say before, was that of course you like Letters from Cleo. You got that whole Julia Stiles thing going on,"

She quit laughing and was now sporting a more serious expression. Eyebrow raised, she asked, quoting from 10 Things I Hate About You, "You think I'm a 'heinous bitch', Zachary?"

The sudden change in tone had tripped Zach up and was now apologetic, "What? No, no no, no-"

"I'm messing with you, doofus,"

"Oh right," Zach remarked, as if he knew that all along, "Of course."

Up until that point, he was beginning to feel more at ease with Magenta. It was tough for him to try and talk to her because he honestly wasn't sure what to expect, which in turn just made it so hard to impress her because that was what most of their interactions were like up until tonight. Just him trying so hard to impress her.

But he couldn't act like he wasn't trying to impress her earlier tonight, showing off his musical prowess (and he didn't even touch the keyboard that was stored away in his closet). But the fact that it apparently was receiving pretty damn well flipped some sort of switch inside him, and now he was able to talk to her like a normal fucking person. It probably helped that they were talking about something that he could definitely go on and on about. It was nice.

For a second it was just so easy to talk to her and joke around, but then he couldn't help but notice the abrupt change in the conversation flow. And it seemed purposeful. For a second they had been on that same wavelength, but it seemed like she wanted to change channels before they got too chummy.

"Yeah, um," Magenta stood up and headed back to the opposite corner of the room, where she left the composition book, "Just gonna grab this and go."

Zach knew this was probably a moment where it was best for him to shut up but he couldn't help but ask, "Is that for a class?"

"Just a bit of nonsense," she dismissed while making her way to the window.

"Well… it can't be nonsense if you're here in my room at 9:30 at night, right?"

He figured it might have been more than just a simple notebook, otherwise she might have just simply called him or IM-ed him to bring it to school tomorrow. Considering the crazy lengths she went through- breaking and entering and inciting a full on argument about Moby- it might have been something special.

He heard her sigh. He had her there. She bounced a little bit between her left and right leg, as if she was deliberating with herself. She then dropped the book and album on his bed (he still wondered why she still had the CD) and began lifting the window open. The cool night breeze flowed in, making the pieces of her hair that framed her face dance along the wind.

"Um.. just some scribblings. I write." she ended up admitting.

He smiled "That's really cool," he found himself echoing the words she said to him.

Her eyes dropped to the floor and she gave a quick nod, "Thanks."

Zach knew the 'thanks' was for more than what he had just said, "No worries."

He played it cool, or tried. Hopefully, she didn't notice him mentally high-fiving himself for not butchering those few words with his stuttering.

She sat on the windowsill and swung her legs over and was now crouching on his roof. She reached over and grabbed her composition book and the Fugees album, "Can I borrow this?" she whispered, not wanting to draw attention to her presence outside.

Zach tried not to show signs of complete and utter repugnance at the initial thought of letting someone borrow from his collection. But, she was well out the window at this point, and if it was anyone else maybe he wouldn't have-

Well now, that he thought more about it, he was actually okay with his other friends borrowing his collection. Maybe not Will. He had this weird inkling that if he were to give one of his CDs to his super-strong friend, he might not see it again… well in one piece. The guy was like his dad sometimes, undermining his own strength and poor household items suffered because of it.

"Go for it," he finally decided.

"Cool," she nodded in the direction of his shelves, "Despite Moby, and few other questionable choices, that's one hell of a library though."

Zach rubbed the back of his neck all sheepishly, trying to ward off the blush that was making its way up to his face due to the sentiment, "Thanks."

Magenta took out a small canvas bag that she must have been keeping on the roof and placed her items inside. And before Zach could protest, she tossed the bag onto the lawn then leapt off the roof and landed on the tree branch having completely transformed into a guinea pig.

He had bounded for the window as soon as he saw her jump. He squinted, trying to make out her guinea pig form from the darkness of night. He tracked irregular movement on the tree and watched her leap onto another branch, revert back to human form mid-air, and swing on that branch like a monkey bar before sticking the landing perfectly, and safely, on the lawn.

He saw her give a two finger salute in the direction of his window. Then she swiped up the bag and jogged off down the street.

Zach practically collapsed onto the windowsill, head resting against the wooden frame and letting the cool air get rid of that flush that had been concentrating on his face.

He felt like he could finally breathe again after that whirlwind of an encounter with the girl that he had been lowkey (highkey) crushing on.

But what an opportune moment for his playlist to play Tommy Roe's 'Dizzy' during his musing on the enigmatic shapeshifter.

_Dizzy_

_I'm so dizzy_

_my head is spinning_

_Like a whirlpool, it never ends_

_And it's you, girl, making it spin_

_You're making me dizzy_

Zach let his head thunk against the windowsill. Took the words right outta brain, Tommy, he thought to himself. He was chilling there, kneeling in front of the window and recalling the stressful yet oddly enjoyable experience being in his friend's company.

It took a few minutes of mentally rewinding the events of the night for Zack to register Magenta's last words to him before she left.

"Wait, what other questionable choices?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We don't see a lot of fics with Z/M as the main couple which sucks because I see a lot of potential for them! I hope you guys enjoy where the story leads.
> 
> Also wondering if there's an official name. I'm going for GuineaGlow if that's cool. 
> 
> Songs played during this chapter: Rip it Up by Orange Juice, Killing Me Softly by the Fugees, Dizzy by Tommy Roe


	2. The Second Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach hits a low point but luckily Magenta's there to help him through it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: mentions and depicts of panic attack. The panic attack starts at * and ends at **

Chapter 2 'The Second Visit'

It had been weeks since Magenta dropped by without notice.

He had gone to school the following day and sat behind her on the bus, but she made no acknowledgement of the previous night's events. He wasn't sure what to make of it, he knew for some reason he didn't want to talk about it either, especially in front of the others. He didn't get to see Magenta outside of school that often, even in the group setting so getting to have her to himself was kinda special.

There were times when they made plans to go to the mall after school and she couldn't go. He chalked it off as maybe some sort of deal at home and she needed to be home at a certain time.

It was hard to think of Magenta being restricted to something or adhering to some sort of rules. She just seemed like a free spirit, especially the way she seemed to be comfortable swinging on trees and sneaking into houses late at night.

And with the way she would dress, in her fishnets and her light purple streaks, he couldn't imagine any strict parent letting their kid out of the house looking like a poster child for Hot Topic or Spencers.

Nothing changed in their school interactions. But lately he had been noticing Magenta's absence during class more and more even though she continued cutting the last 20 minutes of class on the days she usually would.

But it could have been just him being hyper-fixed on the girl ever since that night. Before, he was simply curious, especially with how she managed to do it- since their Algebra teacher was a robot (a literal metal and wires robot).

But now considering how Magenta managed to cross his room and back without him noticing, he figured her powers had something to do with it.

Now, he just wanted to know where she was going. From what he gathered from Ethan, with whom Magenta had gone to middle school and who lived in the same area as her, the orange-clad whiz could see her already having had made it home by the time he got off the bus...

Although the Magenta equation had taken up his thoughts, Zach had more pressing issues to worry about.

The bullying issue still persisted. In fact, it had gotten bad. Real bad.

He had been targeted by that guy who could shapeshift into different people- Dwayne. Well, he was constantly teased by this dude since literally the first day of school, but it began to escalate since Homecoming.

It went from making snide remarks to transforming into teachers and other figures of authority in order to intimidate him into giving him lunch money and just generally harassing him every day.

Will had tried to help him out one or few occasions, but Dwayne proved to be more devious than previously thought. Will did have the unfair advantage of superstrength and if he laid a finger on Dwayne, all he had to do was cry wolf and claim that the mighty Stronghold was beating the shit out of him.

Although Will helped save the school, he was already on thin ice with the administration due to immense property damage he would often cause on a daily basis: lockers, doorknobs, gym floors, etc.. Warren even tried to come to his defense, but the same went for him too but even worse since he had a supervillain for a dad.

And he thought he could stomach what Dwayne was doing to him, he was used to getting picked on, but… he took it too far the other day.

It happened after gym class and he had to face it alone. Warren was out sick, Ethan had to dash out early to catch a meeting with a teacher, and Will had been helping Coach Boomer dissemble their training course that day, and Dwayne would never try anything like what he did with Will present.

Zach slumped into his desk chair as soon as he got home, setting a glass of juice he got from the kitchen on his desk.

The house was deserted since his dad was doing over time hero work with NASA at the moment and Stephanie was out running errands (she left him chicken fritters for a snack), so he was left to kind of stew over the past weeks' events.

His mood had been whack. He found himself wanting to snap at his dad rather than his usual submissive replies and he hadn't thought about his SHOUTcast, having barely thought of touching new music and he couldn't get any sleep- the P.E incident actually having had incited nightmares that woke him up in the middle of the night.

He barely ate today because he had been trying to catch up on work that he put off the day before in the library.

He needed to get his mind off of things. He ambled down the stairs and popped some fritters in the microwave, hoping his stepmom's cooking could raise his spirits. It usually did. For a bit.

He often wondered what she saw in his dad, they could not have been any more different from each other. His dad was this cold, unfeeling stiff whereas Stephanie was insanely caring, doting, and always making sure he was ok (as well as fed).

He was lucky that she had been so patient with him when she first came into their lives- he had a bit of a hard time adjusting to having a new mother figure at home.

The microwave dinged and he grabbed the plate (nearly dropped it- too hot!). He was gonna head to the living room and tune in to some Jimmy Neutron but remembered he forgot the glass of juice upstairs.

Plate still in hand, he made his way towards his room. He set his food down on his desk, next to the Fugees CD.

It had come down to his turn to host the study group a couple nights ago, having gone through the cycle of everyone else's turn to host, apart from Magenta and Warren. And considering the latter had a part time job at the Paper Lantern and was also a sophomore so he didn't really share tons of classes with them, the resident flamethrower wasn't required to host or attend.

Zach didn't know how he managed to pull through his weird funk and ended up hosting, trying to be normal especially with the events of that day being so fresh.

But it was tough with his friends there who all knew what had happened earlier. They had all tried to help him in some way, providing a lot of solutions that often had to do with telling an adult or beating him up (an option often championed by Will and Warren and shut down by Layla)- solutions that Zach knew might give Dwayne more of an incentive to mess with him.

Also, since Homecoming, nothing really changed much in the way the school worked, so if he tried to tell someone- it would be a Hero's word against a Sidekick's…

Although he asked them to not get directly involved, it didn't stop them from treating him as if he was gonna fall apart any moment. Anytime he read a passage from their history textbook (to be honest it was basically a comic book) he would look up and see traces of concern on their faces, well apart from Magenta, who immediately read the following passage without hesitation.

By the end of the night, he was left feeling more dismayed than relieved. Half the reason he decided to go through hosting was that he thought having his friends there with him would take his mind off what happened- but instead it just drew more attention to the incident.

The only upside was finding _The Score_ on his desk after he walked everyone out; Magenta must have returned it during goodbyes.

He did a quick once over at his collection, but he just couldn't bring himself to play anything. His whole mood had been whack the past week.

He didn't talk as much and was mostly just anticipating when Dwayne would strike. He had been so on edge that he could barely concentrate in school, let alone figure out which songs to compile in his playlist.

It was the first time in a long time that he and music were on the outs. The first time it happened was years ago, right after he lost his mom. It took a while before he even had the guts to listen to music again, since every song that seemed to come his way reminded him of some way or another of her.

His eyes drifted over to the box of records on the bottom shelf at the thought of his mom. It was quiet in his room. Too quiet. He swore the silence was doing more damage than playing a song.

Fuck it.

He took the box out and put it on his bed, which was an unkempt disaster area filled with unmade sheets and piles of clothes that he could not confidently discern which is clean or dirty.

His mother's records deserved better placement, but his desk was currently holding his food. Zach then proceeded to pull out his Sony record player that had been originally his mom's. He sifted through the records to find that Santo and Johnny sleeve.

*He held the record in his hands and made a move to play but all of the sudden a familiar chill ran through his body, one that he hadn't felt since he was a kid…

The air left his body as the events from a couple days ago all of the sudden flooded his mind. He had tried to carry on but for some reason he relayed the incident in his head. He remembered feeling so fucking vulnerable then so _powerless_ ; only in a towel after just leaving the showers.

The lights. The shadow. The voice. He had remembered the running, and the slipping, and the figure towering over him in her metal armor, pointing her weapon at him, him pleading for his fucking life only for it to be met with jeering outbursts and laughs. But that feeling of pure terror, fearing for her return was real.

After all Royal Pain was only imprisoned, what if she escaped, what if she came after him, his family, his friends-

_He wanted to f-freakin terrify me. He m-made me relive that night_

Zach's face had gotten so pale and his eyes were fixed far ahead, the nightmares of the past few nights were bubbling up again, his subconscious warping the events of homecoming- a Death Ray for a Pacifier, dead bodies instead of babies on the floor, the school falling and crushing everyone inside- his legs gave out underneath him.

He was hunched over near the foot of the bed and he began to whimper and cry. He felt his neck and shoulders tightening up to the point where they were aching and cramping.

He brought his hands up to his face and saw they were jittery- Fuck- it took him a moment to register that he had dropped the album and the sleeve lay a foot away from him, pieces of the record peeking through.

_Pieces. Pieces. Oh no no…_

So many things were happening. A myriad of emotions spilled out - confusion, fear, embarrassment- that even now, 10 years since this had happened, he still couldn't figure out to stop his own body from acting against him… Utter despair because his mom's favorite record lay in fucking pieces at his feet.

His mom. He wanted his mom… these things didn't happen while she was still alive…

_Please make it stop. Please make it stop._

The chills kept getting worse, he swore the back of his neck was cold as ice- but yet he was still so sweaty- or maybe he was wet from the crying.

His eyes were unfocused but it seemed to be still staring at the spot where the record fell. He swore he could hear things, but everything felt so far away.

_Zach!_

He heard movement behind him and then all of the sudden someone was kneeling beside him.

"Can you hear me, Zach?,"

Zach could vaguely register what the person was saying, he was too busy hyperventilating, the shock still fresh. There was a split second where he didn't feel anything at all, causing him to breathe more erratically than before. He could see more movement through his peripherals, eyes still zeroing in on his shaky hands.

They were probably trying to figure out what to do since no one else was at home. He heard them ask again, and he tried to make a noise in response. He couldn't really talk, his mouth having gone dry from the constant wheezing.

"There, that's good. You don't have to talk. You can nod and shake your head if you want,"

Zach noticed the words coming at him were slow but it didn't feel condescending, more so that the person wanted so badly for him to clearly understand what they were saying, "Is it okay if I held your hand?"

Eyes still fixed on the record, he gave a weak nod. Slowly, he felt a hand grasp his. At this new touch, he held tightly, desperately needing something to anchor him to this world, and if it was cutting off circulation to their extremities they did not show it. The voice continued calmly, "Do you have medication you can take?"

"Zach, can you look at me?" He closed his eyes, causing more of his tears to make a fast track down his face. He almost let go of her just to bury his face into his hands. He heard her sigh, "I want to help your breathing, but I need you to look at me. Please?"

He sniffled and turned his head to face them.

_Maj?_

It was not the Magenta he normally saw. Gone was her signature stoic expression- Her eyebrows were furrowed slightly, showing she was concerned but was mostly calm. Her brown eyes held such warmth that his focus kept flickering between her face and her eyes.

She was giving him a small smile and constant words of affirmation and encouragement. Previously hesitant to look at her, especially feeling so exposed at the moment, now he couldn't bring himself to pull away.

Magenta proceeded to conduct breathing exercises. _In and out. In through the nose. Out with the mouth_ and encouraged him to follow. It took a couple cycles until Zach started mimicking her breathing patterns.

"Okay. Now again, Zach. You're doing so good," she whispered, not stopping the breathing exercises until a couple minutes into starting and after he was well adjusted into breathing more normally again.

"Better?" The breathing exercises did help and stopped crying, he was slowly coming down from it. Looking at Magenta helped too, reminding him he wasn't all by himself, that he wasn't dealing with this all by himself.

He watched her concern melt into relief at seeing him breathe normally. She could tell he wasn't out of it just yet.

"What else can I do to help you?"

Zach tried to think. He didn't want to keep hearing the sound of his own breathing the whole time. He contemplated whether or not he could ask Magenta if he could play something from his own collection, since music usually gave him some sort of emotional release- producing it, listening to it, browsing for it in shops.

His mind was still jumbled, couldn't think of what song or artist he even could play right now. He just wanted to hear something else

"C-could-" He smacked his lips together and sniffled, "Could y-you just keep t-talking?"

Magenta cleared her throat and immediately reverted back to her reserved self. For the first time throughout trying to help Zach get through his episode, she appeared unsure, "Um… what would you want me to say?"

"Anything. J-just want to hear y-you…"

"Um… okay," she exhaled, "Uh… well I read something interesting the other day," she began and started talking about… something or another. She stumbled and paused at various moments at first, trying to fill the void, but then it turned into a full on ramble.

**She still made sure that she didn't talk too fast, but Zach was still trying to comprehend what the hell Magenta was trying to say.

Even though he was collecting himself still, it then dawned on him later that it was intentional, to get him to focus on something else other than… the previous unpleasantries, something else that was so drastically different that he was more engrossed in Magenta talking than the words she was saying.

Zach found himself talking more coherently without a stutter within 5 minutes into the shapeshifter's spiel, mostly to try and engage with what she was saying as to keep his thoughts from going astray.

"-and the fact that colonial and explorer-related language was centered around the feminine and themes of sexuality, it was no wonder why they feel entitled to this land they have not yet explored and-"

"Yeah, uh-huh,"

"-and it further explains why we referred to objects, not just land, in the feminine pronoun 'she'. Right?"

"Yeah, of course,"

He knew this sounded noncommittal and showed disinterest, but he was actually pretty interested in the conversation. He was more interested in Magenta speaking so freely about something she was clearly passionate about.

Most of the time she was pretty sarcastic and not very expressive in her facial features, but he was watching her explain colonialism-related sexism with her hands moving about and hearing the change of inflection in her voice when she was encroaching on a heavy topic. It was nice hearing her go on and on.

He must have had that faraway look again because Magenta all of the sudden became alert again, gripping his hand tighter as if to ground him again, "What..? Zach-?"

He shook his head vigorously, "Oh no no… I'm good," the blonde reassured, "It's just...I've never heard you talk this much,"

Zach would never thought in a million years that it would be him sitting barely saying anything while Magenta was running her mouth. Thinking about this cosmic joke was helping him sober up even more.

He became more aware of the feel of Magenta's hand in his. It was smaller but not dainty. He thought his own fingers were more slender looking than hers. He couldn't feel much skin with her wearing her striped warmers but could feel her fingers rubbing against his knuckle gently.

The touch was strange since Magenta had never been the one to engage in something so… physical when it came to interacting with friends. It was more Layla's department. Or his in fact. The one in the group who would come up with fun handshakes to do with everyone, well apart from Warren and Magenta.

It was such a foreign sensation… but he didn't want her to let go.

She blinked and turned away, apparently his latest statement sobering her up too, "I'm just trying to.." she trailed off. Her grip on his hand loosened considerably before letting him go completely, "Are you- Are you going to be okay?"

He went to say he was fine when all of the sudden his vision was swimming and his head felt like he had just finished spinning around in a circle.

He tried to blink it all away and he felt himself drooping forward. Magenta held her arm out to try and steady him but his body continued to conspire against his wishes. He vaguely heard a sound coming from outside, the car pulling into the driveway.

The last thing he heard before completely passing out was Magenta shouting down his open bedroom door and down the hallway, calling for help.

* * *

Zach had woken up about some hours later in the hospital.

He sat up slowly and saw his dad and Stephanie standing over his bed. Apparently, Stephanie had come home right before he lost consciousness and he was immediately whisked to the hospital.

He noticed that Magenta was not there, but before he could ask the nurse had entered, having been waved down by Stephanie once they saw he was waking up.

Then came the doctor, they ran through tests and looked him over and asked him about what had happened. It took a while to try to explain, since his eyes kept switching off between looking at the doctor and looking at his dad.

At the mention of the panic attack, he could see his father pinch the bridge of his nose, sighing and heading for the chair to sit down.

The doctor kept asking questions on what had possibly happened that could have triggered his episode, and that's when he told him everything (not everything since he couldn't disclose the fact he had powers and he went to a techy- high school in the sky).

But the generics- having survived a traumatic event, being bullied at school which have definitely brought up feelings of the said event, and his erratic behavior with sleeping and eating.

He even told the doctor everything he did that day because it just seemed so random that he didn't have an episode immediately after the incident in the locker room but had one out of the blue when he was home alone.

Stephanie then cut in to say that she had been the one at home helping Zach through his episode when all of the sudden he had passed out after seeming to do well. Zach looked at his stepmom in disbelief and she threw a secret wink his way.

They both knew that his dad was gonna bust a blood vessel for sure once he found that there had been a girl that had broken into his room. But Zach had a feeling that Stephanie might have been doing this for the shapeshifter's benefit rather than his.

The doctor went on with his diagnosis: He had an episode, and it came from extreme levels of anxiety and awful memories of the event. It took a lot out of him and since he didn't have much to eat that day. Zach mentally face-palmed himself for not having had the chance to dig into the chicken fritters.

The doctor then went onto recommending that he saw a psychiatrist, and depending on the interval between potential panic attacks- or if it would start becoming a regular occurrence- the psychiatrist might prescribe medication and/or therapy to help with his anxiety.

He was then free to go after doing another check up on him and saw that he was relatively okay.

The ride home was silent. Zach didn't know how to break the silence and neither did Stephanie, she had always been able to fill the car with conversation especially after he and his dad would have a disagreement.

He knew his dad didn't know how to handle this stuff, only knowing how to say stuff to him thinking it would toughen him up when it really just hurt him more. But he remembered seeing his dad back at the hospital, he had actually looked like he aged 10 years while waiting for him to wake up. And seeing how he reacted when he heard it was another panic attack- in some odd way he knew that his dad was not upset with him.

Every other time, every little thing he did he often thought his dad was gonna get pissed at him. Some irrational fear, he knew. But he just knew this time, given how hard he was holding the steering wheel as they made their way home that it was more about reliving the events following his mom's death all over again.

They pulled up in the driveway and Zach hopped out and was about to head inside when he heard his cell buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw it was a message from Magenta.

_Heads up. In ur room._

He heard his dad come up behind him and he immediately shut his phone close.

He thought he was gonna get some stern talking to, some warning about how he needed to make sure he was eating. But all he got was a pat on the shoulder and then he watched his dad silently climb the stairs and head to his room, forgoing dinner.

"He was worried about you," Stephanie whispered, ushering him through the door, "He knew a guy that could teleport. He headed straight from work to see you."

Zach nodded, "Still surprised he's cool with the whole meds and therapy thing. He would have probably thought it was a wussy thing to do."

He heard her sigh then she put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Zach, your dad can be more understanding than you think."

He wasn't sure about that. Although, he knew his dad wasn't pissed with him. He figured his dad going through with the meds and everything was just to make anything to do with mom go away. Then he remembered the girl upstairs in his room.

"Steph, was _she_ okay, when we left for the hospital?"

His stepmom hummed and proceeded to put her shoes and coat away, "I'm not sure I know who this 'she' you are referring to. But if I did, I can tell you that 'she' seems quite nice and very, very pretty and she looked strikingly similar to the description of a certain girl you danced with."

" _Steeeeeeph_ ,"

Yeah, he told her everything about Magenta in the beginning of the year. He had a big mouth and she was easy to talk to. Definitely easier to talk to than his dad. Although he couldn't really talk to her about hero stuff since she was a civilian, she was quick to understand the woes of having a high school crush.

The red haired woman laughed before kissing the top of his head and going up the stairs, bidding him a goodnight and a reminder to eat something before bed, which left Zach to steel himself before he went up to his room.

He opened the door slowly and quietly but quickly rushing in. He found Magenta leaning against his window sill, fidgeting with the strands of her large maroon hoodie. She stood at attention once he came in.

"Hey," she waved weakly.

"Hey," They stood there for a bit, trying to think of how to proceed.

"Um… I wasn't up here the whole time… just letting you know."

"Ok,"

"I had to go back home for a bit. I couldn't join you guys. At the hospital."

"It's cool,"

He ran his hand through his hair and was still breathing heavily, more from good old fashioned awkwardness rather than the anxiety this time.

"Um… Maj. About earlier. I'm… I'm sorry that you had to see that. I haven't-I haven't done that since I was a kid. And it must have been weird-"

"There's nothing to fucking apologize for,"

Zach couldn't seem to pair her words to her body language at the moment. It seemed as if she was retreating from him. Not physically since she was already on the opposite side of the room.

She didn't seem to mind the emotional proximity they were having before, but it was strictly from a position of a concerned friend, Zach figured, and it was what she had to do in order to soothe him.

Now recalling her response to his episode, it dawned on Zach that Magenta reacted efficiently and calmly, as if following some sort of routine, almost as if-

"You've done this before,"

"Maybe," she shrugged. There was another shared silence before she turned to him, "Do you mind if I asked you what it was about?"

"No. No I don't mind," He looked at his shoes, "It was about Homecoming…" He saw she pursed her lips and crossed her arms, "It's stupid because I mean it wasn't all bad, right?"

"No. it's not. It's not stupid. Geez, I can't even think about it either without…" she trailed off.

The blonde was curious, "Does...thinking about it-?" He gestured to himself.

"Yeah..." she sighed, "But more like sleepless nights and wandering around the park at 3 AM. Like… it's important for me to know I'm still on the ground, you know?"

Zach was stunned by Magenta's admission. It was people like her and Warren who seemed to keep a calm, cool head no matter what.

He felt stupid for not realizing before. She was the one who did save the school, that responsibility of making sure her friends didn't die fell on her. If she didn't cut the wire in time...

But it also made him feel relieved. That it wasn't just him that seemed to be tormented by that night that was seen as a victory for many.

"Does it mean, we should talk about it more?"

Magenta scoffed, "Maybe to professionals first. But yeah. We probably should bring it up… at some point,"

Zach nodded. Then he heard a beep. He brought his wrist to his face thinking it was his watch, but Magenta pulled out her phone from her back pocket and peered at the incoming message, "Shit." She stood up and jimmied his window up and was ready to hop onto the roof.

"You're leaving?"

"No, I'm straddling your windowsill for fun,"

"Um.. uh," Zach flushed at the word usage and because it looked like that was what she was doing. But he wanted to find out one more thing: "How come you showed up at my window today?"

Some expression formed on Magenta's face that he couldn't identify before she quickly composed herself, "Oh right. I… uh… forgot something here during study session. Uh, my wallet. It's fine I'll come back some oth-"

"I'll help you find it,"

Magenta made a grimace, "Right," She swung her legs back around and hopped off the windowsill.

She roamed around the room and Zach helped her look. He knew what it looked like, it was a warm blue color and it had one of Three Blind Mice on it saying 'Watch it!' in a speech bubble. Funny though, Zach thought, he would always see it hanging off a chain attached to her belt loop.

He couldn't really tell if she was wearing jeans or a skirt with any belt loops though due to her oversized hoodie acting like a pseudo dress.

"Found it!" He heard all the way from… his bedside table? He was concentrating his search around the part of the room where the group would study at, towards his desk.

It was always messy so everyone opted to bring out the bean bags and sit near his desk and the door. It was where Magenta left her journal in that particular spot the last time.

She emerged from stooping to look under his bed and held it up in front of her, chain-less, "Well, I-uh gotta go," Then she hurried to the window, which was still open, and sat on the sill for a final send off, "Glowworm." she saluted.

Zach, still puzzled, followed her and stood in front of her, gripping the window frame, "Maj… thanks." He didn't think he could have gotten through his episode that fast if it weren't for her.

The girl nodded and gave a brief smile, "No worries. See you tomorrow." He watched her transform into a guinea pig and run down the roof gutter until she was out of sight.

She reappeared as a human across a minute later, jogging in the direction of her house and disappeared out of his view.

Zach whirled around, taking in his room. It was then he realized that the Santo and Johnny album he dropped was no longer on the floor but placed on his desk. As well as the record player.

He checked the shelves and saw his box of records were returned to its rightful place. He plopped down on his chair and saw that his plate of fritters were still there on his desk too.

He munched on them ravenously, feeling immediate relief. Then he got ready for bed. About ready to turn in, he passed by the Santo and Johnny record. It was still broken. He needed to try and find another copy and somehow get money to buy said copy. He felt that twinge of sadness of not being able to play his mom's favorites, but it was something he was going to have to worry about tomorrow.

Today had been a fucking shitshow. He was pretty exhausted, collapsing on his bed by the end of it. Thankfully he wouldn't have nightmares that night. Instead he dreamt of warm brown eyes and striped warmers.


	3. The Third Visit Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach procrastinates big time the night before a big test, shows off his musical prowess, and drinks some milkshakes. Lengthy chapter split into two parts.

Chapter 3 ‘The Third Visit Part I’

The front wheel of the bicycle clanged against his dad’s toolbox placed haphazardly on the floor.

Zach immediately froze and muttered a string of hushed curses under his breath. He was well on his way out the side door of the garage at 11 PM, trying his best to channel his inner Tom Cruise and pull off this Mission Impossible- level scheme. 

“Hurry up!” he heard Magenta whisper-shout at him from the bushes through the open door.

He took a deep breath and lifted his bike over the obstruction and wheeled it out onto the path that would lead him past the trash cans and towards the side gate.

Magenta scurried out from the foliage and trailed behind him. Once he opened the back gate, he and Magenta rolled the bike down the driveway and onto the sidewalk.

And once they were out of view from any of his house’s windows, he mounted the bike and Magenta hopped onto his basket before shapeshifting into a guinea pig. Then, they fucking booked it down the street. 

His adrenaline was pumping the more distance he was putting between him and his house.

Holy shit. He was actually doing this.

How the hell did he fucking end up sneaking out of his house the night before a really big test with Magenta riding shotgun? Actually gambling with the notion that his dad would punish him with the force and fury of Satan himself if he found out? 

Well…

* * *

Since coming back from the hospital, Zach had started seeing a therapist.

It had been awkward at first- it was not as if he hadn’t been vocal about his feelings before- he could talk up his friends no problem. But it was just weird doing it for a person he had never met before. It took a couple of sessions until he could really delve into the nature of his problems.

Therapy was a surprise. He was learning more and more about himself every time he went.

It was kinda strange but affirming to realize the stuff he would hyper-fixate on and overthink things, just anticipating things that might not happen every time he would go to school was all due to his anxiety. It had explained so much.

It wasn’t until about a month after the locker room incident with Dwayne that his therapist, as well as Stephanie suggested that it was about time to report what happened to the school.

Although nothing as bad happened since then, Dwayne was still managing to reign terror on his life in smaller ways. All the guy had to do was round the corner and bump into him for Zach to feel a hint of a chill on the back of his neck. 

Zach did eventually manage to gain enough courage to go through with it, especially after having told his friends about his anxiety, and knowing that they, Stephanie, and, for once, his dad had his back he felt more emboldened to walk into the principal’s office on Monday morning.

Principal Powers had been as understanding as she was quick to dish out a prolonged detention sentence- and suspension he later found out- for Dwayne.

Turned out, after listening to Zach’s story and digging into the conflicting testimonies of staff whereabouts- Dwayne was found guilty of impersonating several staff members in order to get test answers as well as extorting other students. 

And apparently word had gotten around that Dwayne was going down for all of his crimes, which got other students to also come forward in hopes that it would extend his suspension in order to at least finish out midterm season without him.

Zach felt kind of shitty for not having come forward before now knowing other people have suffered because of Dwayne, but his therapist had explained that it had been Dwayne’s fault for putting him in a difficult situation. 

Principal Powers knew how to carry out the situation with the utmost discretion, so Dwayne himself had never been in the same room as Zack or the other victims while they were making their statements- so their freaking tormentor never knew who it was that first blew the whistle on him. 

Needless to say, Dwayne was out of their lives for now. But with the knowledge of Zach being the one to have had the hand in that being a need-to-know information for his friends, his friends were out there making sure he was all good and that Dwayne’s friends weren’t giving him trouble.

Will had been inviting Zach and Ethan over a lot more to play video games, Layla had been growing some strawberries, his favorite, at various times while they waited for the bus- little stuff like that to cheer him up and to put his mind at ease. 

Zack could see how other people could find this stifling or would say they were babying him- but he didn’t mind. The weeks preceding the locker room incident, he had felt so isolated. He was the kind of guy who thrived when he was socializing, hanging out and talking to people, so he welcomed the company and attention wholeheartedly. 

The whole Dwayne situation resulted in them hanging out more at the mall (where he was constantly trying to scope out that Santo and Johnny record) or at the Paper Lantern, mostly catching Warren at the end of his shift and just eating the food in takeout boxes out in the parking lot.

Magenta had been there for some of it. She mostly could make the day trips like the mall or hanging out at either one of the groups’ places but she couldn’t stay for too long. 

Speaking of the shapeshifter- even though he and Magenta didn’t have a lot of one-on-ones at school, ever since the night of his last panic attack, he would be treated with a weird, random text from Magenta from time to time.

Due to Halloween vast approaching in a week, he had recently received a picture of a glow stick at Spirit with the caption ‘it’s you’. 

It was ridiculous, but it had made him smile. 

Zack was currently holed up in his room, probably the first time in a while that he didn’t have his friends over or be over at any of their places.

Oh, what he would give to play Call of Duty at Will’s right about now. But since he had a very important midterm the next day, he had to make sure he knew the material. 

He had been cautiously optimistic right around when Dwayne had been suspended, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But fuck it, he was in such a good mood lately, and the medication he was taking had been helping, and even though he was subjected to looking at inequalities and variables for the rest of the night- he didn’t know, he just felt like he was on top of the world. 

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was blasting through his speakers (at an appropriate volume as to not piss his dad off). The bubbly melody- sampled from the Tom Tom Club, was oddly reminiscent of that Orange Juice song he had been listening to the night Magenta broke into his room.

It turned out to be yet another opportune time for it to play because right at Kidd Creole’s verse, he heard tapping on his window. 

Zach couldn’t hide the smile that grew on his face. He tossed the pencil he had been holding aside and rubbed his hands together, psyching himself up.

It had been a while since Magenta paid him a visit, and he couldn’t help but look forward to whenever she would come by.

After the weeks of hanging with everyone as a group on the weekends and everything, he had been itching to have some alone time with her.

Although the last time she had come by unannounced was marked by a low point in his life, he would often think about those minutes when their hands were entwined and they were huddled near his bed, hearing the sound of her voice- if anything was worth reliving that day, it would be that...

Fuck. He sounded like a sap. He needed to play this differently. 

He needed to be more cool and confident. Lately, he couldn’t help but be more self-conscious around Magenta whenever Warren was around, who was the poster boy for cool and confidence.

He wasn’t blind, he could see that they were more each other’s type if it weren’t for the fact he was dating Bridget, the one with the icy powers.

They were also both huge bookworms, often exchanging books and book recommendations. Sometimes at lunch, Warren would say something so deep about postmodernism literature or some shit like that, and Magenta would say something like, ‘Respect, man,’ and it just- ugh, it would get Zach’s blood boiling sometimes. 

And he didn’t mean to. He liked Warren, he was a standup guy, but Zach knew he couldn’t compare sometimes; he wasn't some deep poem junkie or some brooding buff like that.

But he couldn’t help but think that Magenta would rather be talking to Warren, would rather be climbing through the hothead’s window instead of his… 

He rolled his chair over to the window and slid it open, ready to be just as snarky and sarcastic as Warren,

“A knock, that’s a change-” he began but fell over backwards when he saw that Magenta was not alone. He landed on the floor to the sounds of her laughter. 

Great start.

“Oh my god, Zach! Are you okay?” The surprise guest popped her head into the room and he saw her face framed by swinging red braids. 

Zach popped back up, brushing himself off and kicking his desk chair aside, “Oh hey! Layla! I’m fine. All good. All good.”

He took in the sight of her and Magenta, elbows perched on his windowsill, staring innocently up at him, completely unaware that she was crashing his party.

“Whatcha…. Whatcha doin’ here?” He was so badly trying to be normal while at the same time shooting looks at Magenta who merely shrugged. He could tell she was taking some sort of pleasure from pulling one over him. 

The redhead was sporting her usual braids with daisies intertwined in her locks and was matching Magenta with a baggy sweatshirt, most likely Will’s, but unlike Magenta, she was super apologetic about coming over unannounced,

“Hey, so sorry to drop in like this, but apparently Magenta said this was a way to sneak ‘contraband’” she mimed the quotes, “into your house. Also I needed some help bringing it up here.”

Zach zeroed in on a box she had beside her. He gulped, forgetting Plan Cool for second,

“Layla, if you’re telling me you found a way to grow weed, I don’t think I can handle that right now, especially when I-” and he locked eyes with Magenta “-we,” he gestured to the both of them to Layla, “got a big test tomorrow.”

Layla scrunched her nose at the thought, “No, silly,” Then she lifted the box and balanced it on the sill until Zach was able to haul it inside and put it on his bed, “this is for you.”

He opened it and was gobsmacked, “No way.” 

Inside were records. Just a whole bunch of records. He eagerly, but carefully, picked each of them up inspecting the sleeves, admiring the cover art and reading the sticker labels on the corner- a way to organize them by genre by the looks of it. 

“I know you’ve been trying to replace your mom’s record. And I know this isn’t it, but my mom and dad were going through their stuff and they had all these other records from their travels. I thought you’d want to have them.” 

He sifted through the different records, “Egyptian reggae? Japanese funk?,”

He was in such awe, that he didn’t care that none of these were that Santo and Johnny record. He knew there was this global influence he wanted to tap into, but he wasn’t sure where to start.

There were so many records from different countries, some of the sleeves he couldn’t even read because they were in a different language altogether, “Damn, Layla your folks went to a lot of cool places.”

“They were eco and animal activists that traveled all over with an organization. It’s actually how they met,”

His shoulders drooped. This box had so much history. It was almost too valuable for him to have. He couldn’t possibly- 

“Are you sure they don’t need these anymore?”

Layla waved it off, “Nah. They did keep their favorites. We’re trying to clear out our basement to make this cool greenhouse/lab thing for my parents to work in,”

He leaned over the window and wrapped the resident hippie in a warm hug, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Consider it an early, early birthday present,” She gave some friendly pats on his back before breaking the hug. She turned to Magenta, beaming, “Thanks for bringing me up, M.”

“You sure you wanna head back by yourself?” 

“Yeah. I got it,” Layla shot her friends a wink, which made Zach put up a mental reminder to ask what that was about. Then, she summoned a thick branch from the nearby tree her way and she hopped on board, “See ya guys tomorrow.”

Magenta and Zach watched Layla walk onto the branches with ease before safely hopping off the tree and darting towards the street, but not before happily waving at the two. 

“Early, early birthday present, huh,” Magenta remarked while crawling through the window. She held a hand out to try to steady herself while bringing her other foot around, but Zach grabbed it making it easier for her to get in.

With both feet on the ground now, Magenta raised an eyebrow before letting go, most likely refraining from making a sarcastic comment of how gentlemanly the gesture was. 

“Uh yeah, it’s a week after Halloween,” He went for the bed rather than his chair this time so he could browse through the new additions to the collection. He plopped down, kneeling in front of the box. Magenta went to sit on the chair, sliding it back towards his desk. 

“Hmm… good to know,” she said, almost absentmindedly while glancing over the practice sheets and notes on his desk with more interest.

“Are you dressing up for Halloween?” 

“Not sure yet,”

“Weren’t you just at _Spirit_?”

“Yeah, getting a costume for my little brother. He wants to be a Power Ranger,”

Well that was new.

“Didn’t know you had a little brother,”

“He’s in 5th grade, so it’s a big deal for him,” She shook her head before standing up and joining him in checking out Layla’s gift, “Any luck finding the record?” 

“Yeah, the store near the 7-Eleven had it. But I’m practically broke so… gotta find a way to raise some money,”

“Don’t you get an allowance?”

“Nope. My dad thinks since we’re family, he doesn’t have to pay me,” 

“What a dick,” 

“I just use Christmas cash from grandma when I go to the mall. I blow it on new music anyway,”

“How much is the record?”

He set a record down then blew a raspberry, “60 bucks?”

“Well shit,”

“Turns out the record I broke was one of their lesser known albums. And it was a special edition. The store is gonna hold it for me for a few days but after that- not sure,” Just his fucking luck. 

“Hmm… have you thought about trading any one of these for it? Some music stores buy old CDs and records and stuff, or you can exchange it for in-store credit,”

Zach vehemently shook his head, “Layla gave me these. I just can’t…” 

He wasn’t sure if he was coming from a music lover’s standpoint or he was just super sentimental, but you couldn’t just give away music that’s been gifted to you. If someone had taken the time and money to curate a collection- it was special and meant a great deal to them at one point.

One of the last things his mom did was pass down her collection on to him, he took keeping guard of her music seriously. And now that Layla’s parents have indirectly gifted their collection to him, he wanted to take good care of it too. 

“I didn’t get a chance to listen to them yet. What if I find something golden in here?”

Magenta crossed her arms, “Okay, then let's just listen through some of them. If there’s a record you’re not a fan of- we can set it aside later,” Zach opened his mouth to argue, but she went on, “Just in case! You need that money, Glowworm.”

Then she picked a random record, one that looked like it didn’t have dust on it, and went to his player on his desk to switch with Grandmaster Flash.

“It’d make the studying go by faster, but I’m not gonna sell anything!”

He went to sit down at his desk. He thought about asking the shapeshifter if she wanted to study with him, since it’s for their class but all of the sudden the room roared to life with trumpets and a hearty laugh.

The bluesy rhythm that followed made him jump to his feet. It sounded so familiar. 

“Wait a minute, I’ve heard this one before,” He closed his eyes and swayed, not caring if Magenta was staring, he just needed to remember where he heard this from. 

She read from the record sleeve, “Um… It says it’s The Sunglows,”

“I know that, but… “ Then it hit him, “ _The Tubthump_.”

Magenta was confused, “The Chumbawamba song?” 

“No,” Zach looked at her, surprised, “You’ve never been? It’s that diner over on Koepenn, it’s been there since forever. It’s near that really dingy gas station.” 

She shrugged, “Seen the gas station. Don’t really get around town a lot. Not really familiar with that part of town.”

“It’s pretty cool. It used to be a bowling alley,” 

And the last time he checked, it was bowling themed too. He remembered the food was pretty good, but the milkshakes were ingrained in his memory, they were legendary and they would always add more whipped cream than he could consume.

He had gone there all the time when he was younger, not as much these days. He found himself getting excited at the thought of going again. 

Then he had a crazy idea. A ballsy idea that someone who was cool and confident could be sure to pull off. 

“It opens till really late,” 

Magenta smirked, immediately getting what he was hinting at, “Glowworm, are you seriously considering sneaking out of the house? I mean- ”She pointed to his studying setup on his desk, “there’s that. And aren’t you in a bit of a financial bind right now?”

Then it was his turn to shrug, “It’s whatever. A couple milkshakes wouldn’t hurt. I’m willing to part with some cash if it means taking you to, like, the coolest spot in town.”

Magenta eyed the notes on his desk as well as the door. “You sure?” 

“That’s not a no,” He tried to shift focus.

“That’s not an answer,”

He knew that he should be working on midterms right now and there was the known fact between the two of them that he had never snuck out of the house before. The threat of his dad grounding him until graduation was too great for him to risk it.

But, this was his chance to show that he could do something as rebellious and be nonchalant about it.

Also, he kind of wanted to make it up to Magenta after what she did to bring him down from his panic attack. And he also felt bad that she constantly had to leave early and miss out on stuff they were doing as a group. 

Also the milkshakes were the bomb and he was kinda craving them.

Zach smiled and nodded, “I’m sure,” he lied. 

It didn’t seem like she fully believed him but she decided to go with it, “Then, yeah. I’m in,” And she made a move for the window, but then stopped and swiveled around, “But how are we gonna get there? Koepenn is too far to walk.”

The blonde scrunched his face into an almost wince but was trying to smile for Magenta’s benefit- he knew how, but he could easily get caught before he could even leave the house. But what the hell. 

“How about a moonlit bike ride?”

* * *

It had been a 20 minute trip to the diner. On the way there, Magenta had to change back halfway through, apparently the basket was not super comfortable and seeing as it didn’t have guinea-pig seatbelts- it had proved to have been a real bumpy ride for her.

Unfortunately, in the process of her shape shifting back into human size, she had broken the basket, which had Zach stop the bike to help Magenta off the ground. 

Her easy solution had been to ride on his handlebars, which had Zach nearly crash into light poles.

Not because he couldn’t see with a person obstructing his field of vision. But because Magenta had to lean back to rest on his shoulder and hold her legs up in order to not get caught by the wheel, but in trying to keep balance, her face was insanely close to his. 

This led to many, many, lapses of judgement when maneuvering the bike.

They rolled up to the place at around 11. _The Tubthump_ was nestled between other businesses in this sort of small town-esque shopping plaza but it had a great number of trees around it too.

It turned out that the statement of the diner having been renovated from a bowling alley was partly true. It had been this huge building but most of it was forced to be torn down to make room for the other businesses.

But it was still larger than most diners he had come across and was also a circular building which Zach thought was kinda cool. 

What more could Zach say about the place. It was set up in usual diner fashion- illuminated with blues, pinks, and reds in its neon glory. It was actually how you could tell it was the _Tubthump_ from a mile away at this time at night as well the tall sign with its giant pink arrow directing more of your attention towards the joint. 

Magenta hopped off just as he locked the bike up, having grabbed his chain lock before heading into the garage and sneaking out. He held the door open for her and they strolled in. There were quite a number of patrons in the diner from the looks of it, as if it wasn’t close to midnight on a Thursday night. 

“How come this place is busy this late?” Magenta asked as she slowly took in the crazy sight that was the _Tubthump_. 

The whole place was, ironically, bowling themed, with bowling pin shaped clocks, framed pictures of the lanes back in the day, and since it was a circular building, the bar area was just one big circle, with the fountain sodas, beverage fridges, and the waitresses working the register in the center. 

Zach whistled. He thought his memory embellished a few things but damn, it was just as great as it was when he was kid. The vibe might have been different- there was this kind of restlessness in the air. Then he noted the officers in uniform taking station on the barstools, looking beat.

“It’s the only place in town all night. I guess a lot of cops and other night owls come here for a bite.” He surmised but wasn’t too sure. He had never been here at this hour. 

The bar looked busy so they slid in a booth overlooking the street and a waitress came by to take their milkshake order. Chocolate for Zach and strawberry for Magenta. Both with whipped creams and cherries on top, which they agreed was the real way to take a shake. 

While they were waiting, Zach decided to bring up the subject of his box of new records, “So, why did you bring Layla to my roof?”

“Like she said: contraband. I had a feeling your dad wouldn’t be too stoked about you having more music in the house,”

Zach let a little laugh. He himself had forgotten that detail, but he should have known to leave it up to Magenta to catch that detail from the first time she had snuck into his room, “You’re not wrong.” 

Speaking of music, he recalled something else from his times in the diner. He craned his neck to try to search for it and found it right where it had been all those years ago, “There’s the jukebox. Where I heard the song from the record you played.”

“Shit. I’ve only seen those in movies,”

They immediately headed over to the opposite side of the room. It was more angular, less like the ones that the ones Magenta had mentioned would be in movies. Upon a closer look, the jukebox looked like it had seen better days.

It had been collecting a little dust on the acrylic covering. Didn’t look like it had been recently played but it was still plugged in, seeing how the lights were still on. 

Zach was able to find the song he had heard in his room. He took out a quarter and slid it in the slot but was able to find some more coins in his pockets and ended up putting them in as well as selecting some more songs while he was at it.

Then the trumpets and the bluesy beats flowed out of the machine no problem. 

The previous somber mood in the diner seemed to dissipate with the addition of the bop. A couple people raised their heads and stared at the jukebox, some probably having forgotten that that thing even worked. 

Then, the waitress came back with their milkshakes and signaled to the two from the other side of the room. Taking their cue, they returned to the table, amidst a few stares from the other patrons, and got to work on their milkshakes. 

Zach drank through the straw and immediately tasted the sweet, sugary goodness. His memory had undersold it. 

He watched Magenta take a sip and her eyes grew wide. Seemed to be a hit with her too. He then did what he usually did with his milkshakes and plucked the candied cherry and dipped it in his shake before taking it in his mouth.

He must have been putting on a bit of a show with his weird ritual because he caught the shapeshifter watching him intently. He raised an eyebrow and it had seemed to snap Magenta back to normal.

He could have sworn she was getting red in the face but it was hard to discern with the low lighting inside the diner and the bright neon lights from outside. 

“Um… uh I was trying to figure out how I knew that song,”She began, realizing it had been getting a bit too quiet between them, “The Fugees song. Turns out my mom had the Roberta Flack album. She heard it growing up too.”

“Huh, no kidding,”

“There was that other song she did. Heard that in that Clint Eastwood movie where some crazed girl got obsessed with a radio DJ and was out to kill him,” She then made the move to scope out for potential threats, “So watch out.” She joked.

Zach shook his head, laughing nervously, “I’m not a DJ.”

“You look like one to me,”

“Still haven’t set up my stream yet,”

The girl across from him made another sweep around the room, “You don't see it?” she said incredulously, “all these people who love your jukebox songs?”

Zach followed her gaze around the room and saw a couple of the police officers bobbing their head to the beat of the song- the music having had changed a few seconds ago from The Sunglows to the Delegations, more of a slow and sensual kind of vibe.

He did hear a couple of noises of approval and recognition, other people inching towards the jukebox to look at the title of the song. Even an older couple who had been sitting a few tables away had even gotten up to engage in a slow dance near the jukebox. It was a bit magical, Zach had to admit.

“I mean, it’s songs that the jukebox already has,” he brushed off. It would have been more impressive producing new tracks, all he was doing was playing other people’s hits. 

“Yeah, but you seem to know what to pick. Gauging the room. Some real nostalgia shit you got going on, cuz you have me remembering a CD my mom used to play when I was a kid and haven’t thought about that shit in years.”

Zach kept looking around the diner, still in awe that the songs in the jukebox had flipped some sort of switch. People were having more animated conversations. “Seems like they’re remembering good times, I guess.” 

Magenta pursed her lips then decided to change the subject, “First time sneaking out, huh. How is it?”

“Don’t really wanna make it a habit though. You sort of kinda met my old man. You know how he’d get though,”

“Yeah,” Magenta took another sip of his shake, getting dangerously close to the bottom of the glass, “But your stepmom has always been cool when we come over. Her snacks,” She mimicked a chef’s kiss, “Like this fucking shake.”

“You know she covered for you at the hospital?”

“You’re giving me more reasons to love her,”

“She’s great. Really,” Zach sighed, “But it was my mom who actually brought me here when I was younger. Was our spot and they always played good music. She would get a peppermint shake- she said she liked how extra chilly it was going down her throat. Never got it. We always went after piano lessons too,”

“You play piano?” Magenta seemed to be amazed by that fact.

“Used to. I tried to continue with the lessons but my dad… wanted other things for me.”

“I get it. It’s always dads isn’t it? Why do we have a problem with our dads?”

“You too?”

“I mean, generally. Like everyone’s got ‘daddy issues’,” The girl hastily went on to slurp the rest of her shake.

Zach was getting a better grasp on the girl’s tells, he continued to press, “Maj.” he said in a knowing tone. 

She lifted her head. “Yeah,” she sighed. 

“What does he do?”

“Let’s just say, he’s super overprotective but kinda clueless when it comes to other stuff. How does it feel though, rebelling against your dad right now?”

“Fucking scary. But liberating. Feels… good,” He played with his straw, churning the remnants of the whipped cream, “I mean, wouldn’t you know? I’m pretty sure your folks wouldn’t be too happy, you sneaking into a boy’s room and all. Going to a part of town you don’t know,” he teased.

“Yeah, but I never got any satisfaction from it. I don’t know. I mean, I can’t say that really. I’m having… a pretty good time,” She threw a smile his way and it nearly made him glow… literally.

“But,” she continued in a more serious manner, “sneaking out was never something I took pride in. I mean, I could rebel against every fucking institution from here to I don’t know, New York City. But the thought of going against my dad…”

“You afraid of him?”

“No… I just feel bad for him,” she furrowed her eyebrows and divulged further “I think when you know too much or seen too much of your parents- it’s a little hard to be afraid of them…. Or even be mad at them. I guess that’s why rebelling against them… just seems so pointless to me if it's not coming from a place of wanting to piss them off. What upsets them… upsets me too in a way,”

“Then why do you do it?”

“I do it for them, I guess. It’s…,” she trailed off. There was something she didn’t want to talk about just yet. But Zach was learning more and more about her than what he thought was possible. 

“I didn’t know you were that close with your family,” 

His remark made her scoff, “Me neither… until now.” 

The revelation barely had time to be registered among the two of them when suddenly a man approached their table. 

“Excuse me, young man,” Zach turned to face the guy. He was a balding gentleman with a hulky figure. He had grease stains on his shirt and a towel over his shoulder. It appeared as if he might have emerged from the back where the kitchen was, “Did you pick those songs?” 

“Uh… yeah?” Zach’s heart started to race, was he not supposed to have used the jukebox. He didn’t want to get in trouble. He knew he was gonna get some sort of comeuppance for sneaking out. 

“You know those songs?” The man continued with his hands on his hips. He didn’t seem to be showing signs of hostility, merely curious on how a boy this young was able to pick more of the obscure songs rather than the Four Tops or Frankie Vallli. 

“How could I not know The Sunglows?”

The big man broke out into a toothy grin and gave a strong pat on Zach’s shoulder, nearly rocking him into the table, “Damn, did ya hear that Rose? This kid knows the greats!” The woman working the register nodded and gave a thumbs up, eyes not leaving the register, “Play another one for us. You got taste, kid.”

Zach let out a breathless laugh in disbelief, not really sure this moment was real. Everything about this place, maybe even this time of day, when everything just seemed like a dream.

He was getting requests, someone wanted him to play them something, and he thought he had good taste in music. Like what the hell was even happening. 

“I would, sir,” he began politely, “but I’m all out of coins.”

The man immediately fished for some change in his pocket and nearly the quarters on the table “Aight, here ya go. We trust ya.” 

The guy seemed to be speaking for the diner because other people who had overheard the conversation were giving signs of encouragement.

He almost sunk further into his seat from all the attention, getting a bit of performance anxiety. Then, he threw a glance back at Magenta who was also basically telling him to go for it. 

“Are you sure?” He said to the man who just kept on nodding. Zach got up with a round of light applause and he gave a weak wave to his… fans? He walked up to the jukebox with a sense of pressure on his shoulders. 

He spent more time than he should flipping through the songs and seeing which one would make a great addition. He ended up choosing the Bad Seeds and it would follow it up with something a bit newer with ELO.

Once he heard the guitar strums of the first song, the diner’s energy was renewed once again- many others recognizing the song, probably thinking it had been originally a Ramones song. 

He received some high fives from the other patrons on his way back to his and Magenta’s table. 

“I love this song!” The big guy exclaimed, “Like those songs that are sad but it hurts so good, ya know? I listened to this song when I needed to try and get over a gal. You really know how to pick ‘em. I got about 100 songs in that box, I forget what we even have in there. I sometimes swap some out with some current shit, but I haven’t seen nobody pick the tunes as you have,”

He observed the young man with this newfound admiration, “Who are ya, kid?”

“I’m Zach,” He held his hand out and the man eagerly shook it.

“Nice to meet ya Zach. And this lovely lady here?” He addressed the shapeshifter.

She shook the man’s hand as well. “Magenta,” 

“Shit, were your parents Mr. and Mrs. Crayola or somethin’?”

“I’m set to inherit the crayon empire once I become of age,” She went off without missing a beat. 

The man whistled, clearly smitten with the girl’s quick wit and sense of humor. Me too, buddy, Zach thought.

“You two are quite the pair. I’m the owner, Martinez. You can call me Teeny,” Then he leaned closer to the two and whispered: “Anything you guys want, it’s on the house.”

“Uh w-wow thanks,” Teeny apparently had to help run the kitchen that night and left in a bit of a hurry. 

The teens gawked at the man’s retreating form before sharing a laugh. Magenta raised her glass at Zach as if to toast him, “Look at you. Haven’t been here for 30 minutes and you already got sway with management,”

He lifted his right back at her, “What can I say, I got sway.” To his surprise, Magenta giggled at that.

“So… uh, you have a brother. Must be nice to have a sibling around,” Zach had always wanted siblings growing up. He figured it would have been fun, to have someone to play with while dad was busy at work.

“Must be nice not having to share snacks, toys, a bathroom, etc.” she retorted. It was a fair point, ““And two. Got a sister.”

“Oh. What’s she like?”

“She’s a raging bitch,” She deadpanned, “Believe it or not, I’m the nice one in my family.”

“I’d pay to see that,” 

“Hold your horses, you barely covered shakes,”

“Well… a gentleman should always pay,”

“Pay next time, once you get your financials in order. Teeny got you this time,” 

His breath hitched, “Next time?” he whispered, trying not to sound too hopeful.

She took a bite out of her cherry, but he could see her eyes twinkle in earnest. They sat there, engaged in this one look and like the other day sitting and listening to her talk, Zack felt like he could bask in this moment forever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I deviated from the 5 times plus 1 format, but I like writing lengthy chapters and wanted to have more Zack and Magenta moments. So technically you're getting two chapters in this update rather than one. You're welcome :)
> 
> Also the new records that Zach gets from Layla was roughly inspired by the Youtube Channel 'My Analog Journal' that plays a lot of cool records from different countries around the world. I highly recommend checking it out, good playlists of songs to jam out or chill to. 
> 
> Songs Mentioned:  
> 'It's Nasty' by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five  
> 'It's Okay' by The Sunglows  
> 'Oh Honey' by The Delegations  
> 'Can't Seem to Make You Mine' by the Bad Seeds  
> 'Sweet Talkin' Woman' by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)


	4. The Third Visit Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach gets a shovel talk sooner than expected and revelations ensue.

Chapter 4 ‘The Third Visit Part II’

The two ended up chatting for a while. They had ordered another round of shakes, now that they were covered by the owner. They were currently hashing out Halloween plans.There was some talk amongst the group about maybe doing a group costume. Warren passed, but they figured they could still dress up as the kids from _Recess_. It was the perfect costume for high school, it’d be a fun throwback but also didn’t look too much of a costume for it to stick out. Magenta would be a shoe-in for Spinelli, but he didn’t even know if she’d be coming with them to go to Larry’s house party. But it turned out if she took her brother back home at a good time after trick-or-treating, then there was a slim chance she could go. Then, the conversation took a turn when they got into the pros and cons of going to a party hosted by Larry.

“The guy’s a sleaze,” Magenta asserted, “I’m worried if I showed some shoulder or worse… some ankle-”

“-How scandalous-” Zach joked.

“-The creep would be all over me,”

“Layla would die than let that happen,” If there was anybody in the group that was a bigger hothead than Warren, it was Layla. It was difficult to piss her off, but if anybody came for her friends- all hell would break loose. 

“I know. But there’s most likely gonna be booze at the party too,”

“True. Might be cool,”

“Would rather try out some alcohol in better company,”

“He’s probably gonna play shitty music,”

“Yeah, Will told me that he kept requesting Moby when he had that whole unsanctioned house party at his place,”

He threw a sugar packet at her, “Shut up.”

In the midst of the laughter, he made the mistake of glancing at his watch and saw that it was half past midnight, “Shit. We should get back soon.”

“C’mon, we’ve been here for nearly an hour. What’s one more?” 

“Maj, we got that test tomorrow,” he reminded her.

She scowled and kept trying to drink from her glass that was clearly empty, “Yeah, that. Almost forgot.”

Zach leaned over, his face creasing into an expression of worry, “You’ve been studying?”

“Nope,” 

“How come?”

“Maybe there doesn’t have to be a reason, Glowworm,” Shit, he could tell by her tone that she was getting defensive. 

“I could help you,” he tried, “If we race back to my place right now, there’s some time to study and sleep okay-ish for tomo-”

“It’s fine. Really, Zach. It’s fine,”

“No, it’s not. It’s a huge part of our grade-”

“ _Ju_ _st drop it._ Let me fail,”

A beat of silence passed before Zach just blurted it out, “Just because you cut class doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared for the test-” 

Her jaw tightened and she sat up into a more rigid position, eyeing him coldly,“Look, I have reasons for that. You don’t need to concern yourself with my performance in this class.”

Shit. He didn’t mean it like that, she didn’t let him finish, “I’m not trying to- I don’t want to upset you.”

“Too late for that,” She slid her finished glass away from her and crossed her arms, “Look, it’s something I don’t want to talk about with you. So just get it through your fucking head!” Her eyes widened as soon as her outburst came out, her hands flew to her mouth.

Zach sank into his seat, backing away from her, “Ok then.” 

He should have expected it. They were getting to know more about each other, so the pushback was inevitable. But it just… hurt somehow this time. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy being friends with her due to her reserved nature. He couldn’t help but be frustrated- the emotional distance, the sarcastic remarks- it was taking a toll on him and he was trying. They were doing so well, but he couldn’t deny the way his breathing was starting to get out of sorts as he was feeling the weight of everything that had been said.

He shifted himself to leave the booth. He needed some space, “I’m just gonna… make sure we’re really square with Teeny.”

“Zach…” Magenta tried calling for him, appearing ashamed. But he… just needed to put some space between them for now. 

He walked up to the counter where the owner was wiping down the bar near the register, conversing with a regular, “Hey, uh, Teeny.” He cut in.

“Ah, kid!” The man greeted him warmly.

“Yeah. Are you sure it’s on the house? I feel like I should pay-”

“Don’t worry about it. I got you covered now and whenever you come in,”

Zach rubbed the back of his neck, completely floored by the guy’s kindness and all for picking some good songs, “That’s… wow. At least, lemme pay you back in jukebox fare next time I stop by,”

Teeny pointed a stubby finger at him, keeping up with that perma-grin on his face, “See, I know you’s a good kid. But I gotta ask, as a responsible adult, why you out so late with your girl here?”

“Oh, she’s- she’s not mine. Not mine,” He spluttered, turning a light shade of crimson.

“Ah, ok, ok. I get it,” The older man kept bouncing his focus between him and Magenta sitting in the booth, “testing the waters?”

The blonde grimaced, “Not exactly smooth sailing.”

“Never is. For the ones that are worth it. But I think I should be that responsible adult and tell you to get her home. Stat,”

“Yeah. Just about to head out,”

“Lemme get you some fries for the road,” He hunched over, scribbling away on a notepad before Zach could protest. He went to hand it off to a nearby employee but it seemed like they were all busy, “Shit,” Then he heard the bell rang as someone donning the signature blue waitress uniform strolled through. Teeny put his hand on his heart, in relief, “Oh hey, thank goodness for the schedule ammirite? Amber, can you help me out with something, please? Can you hand over this ticket to the back while you’re at it?”

“Can you shave that beard while I’m at it?” The girl, who looked to be in her early twenties, tied up her dark hair that was streaked in dark reddish-oranges, snatched the ticket from her boss’s hand, “On it, big guy.”

“Just sit tight. They’ll be out soon,” 

“Thanks,” He turned around and was about to alert Magenta that once the fries were out they were gone. He had been already anticipating an awkward, silent ride back but he became alarmed real quickly when he found the table empty, apart from the discarded sugar packets and the empty milkshake glasses. 

Forgetting about their little spat, he sped around the diner, even asking some nearby patrons if they had seen a girl about 5’2’’ with purple hair wandering about. He had even considered knocking on the women’s restroom to see if she was there, but luckily he caught a flash of purple outside near the bushes. 

He burst through the doors into the cool night air and maneuvered through a sudden influx of new customers to get to the girl waiting anxiously behind a bush near the bike rack. She appeared distressed, and she kept sneaking looks at the diner window but mostly concealing her face in her hood. The moment she saw Zach approach she seemed relieved and she tugged him closer to her with a sense of urgency. 

“We need to go. _Now_ ,” 

“Why? Teeny is hooking us up with fries,” Then Zach was being led to his bike. Magenta was expecting him to unlock it. 

“Please, we need to hurry back right?”

Zach was confused. A second ago, she didn’t want to leave. Now, she was in such a hurry to get out of here. “What the hell is going on?”

The bell rang once more but Zach attributed it to a weird number of people entering the store at this hour, he could see a bunch of cars pulling up into the lot. 

“Hey kid!” He turned and saw the waitress, Amber, come towards them with a paper bag, “your fries are ready-” She stopped and narrowed her eyes at them, _“The fuck are you doing here?”_

“Shit,” He heard Magenta growl. It was when he realized that Amber was zeroing in on her. 

“You… know her?”

The shapeshifter sighed and threw her hands out, gesturing towards the other girl, “It’s my fucking sister.”

  
  


_What?_

Zach mentally face-palmed himself for not catching the similarities. They had the same piercing dark eyes and now seeing them together, clearly pissed at each other, they even pulled off the agitated expression the same way. And not just the physical appearance, after hearing Amber in the diner earlier, she was just as snarky too. And if what Magenta had said was true, about her being the nice one, he’d better watch out.

Amber stormed over to the two, practically shoving the bag of fries into Zach’s hands before grilling her young sister, “You’re supposed to be at home.”

“So I don’t have to see you work here instead of going to night school like we all fucking thought?”

“Who do you think gives you lunch money? Certainly not Pops,” Then the older girl finally took notice of Zach, who was wishing he wasn’t a part of this, “- _And who the fuck is this_?”

Magenta tried to physically cut in between Zach and her sister, “None of your business.”

The older girl stared him down, and he nearly cowered at the iciness he saw in her eyes,“You’re the glowy one, aren’t you?” she deduced. 

“Uh, yeah?” Zack nearly kicked himself for sounding so meek. Geez, he was at 2 feet taller than this girl. 

Wait. Magenta’s sister knew him? It meant that she had least mentioned him to her family at home. _She talks about me?_ \- which would have been real flattering in any moment except this one. 

Amber shook her head vigorously as if he said something she clearly did not want to hear. She pinched the bridge of her nose, “Jesus, Maj. Jesus Christ, Lord from above- fuck,” she pointed at the smaller girl, practically poking her, “Dad is gonna have a meltdown if he finds out you’re not

home, and that you’re out with a boy. With him?”

Zach was going to try not to take offense to that. But he did wonder why him in particular was going to get Magenta in huge trouble. 

Magenta scoffed, “Yeah, but I don’t think dad’s gonna like the fact that you’ve been lying about still being in school!” she shot back.

“Definitely beats going to your freak academy. Do you actually learn anything up there?”

Zach was definitely backing away now that the conversation got more heated. Again, he did not grow up with siblings so he wasn’t sure if he should step in. And quickly recalling their conversation in the diner, Zach wasn’t sure if he should be inserting himself into Magenta’s business anyway. But he could see that as much as Magenta was exuding clear signs of anger, he could tell that she was more betrayed than anything else. But luckily the exchange of low blows was interrupted by Teeny who came out the front door.

“Hey Amber, we need you up front!” He called but read the tension in the air. He furrowed his eyebrows,“What’s up, kiddo?”

“It’s just my brat of a sister. She’s supposed to be home” She grabbed Magenta by the shoulder, intending to pull her in the direction of her car, “Do you think I can take her home real quick before starting my shift?”

“I would any other night, but we are getting kabobbed out there. Like skewered. And Kev’s out sick,” Then the slightly rotund man had his sights set on Zach, “Why can’t Picks just take her home?”

_“Picks?”_ Zach and the two girls chorused. 

“Yeah, cuz he sure can pick ‘em tunes,”

Amber sighed, knowing she was put in a tough spot. She addressed her boss, “You vouch for the kid?”

“Met him tonight. But I think he’s standup. Why don’t you ask your sis? She knows ‘em better than I do,” Then Teeny waved them off before returning inside to manage the influx of customers. 

Magenta wriggled out of her sister’s grip to stand by Zach’s side. “He’s right. Just go. Zach will take me back.” In the midst of her sentence, he felt her hands gently bunch up his jacket sleeve as if she was worried her sister was gonna take her away again. 

Amber was shocked, to say the least. He was too, for Magenta to trust him into taking her home safely, for her to be so adamant in going with him. But the alternative didn’t prove to be so promising- a possible grounding by her parents for sneaking out, so he shouldn’t take it so personally. 

She shared glances with Magenta as if they were having a silent conversation. Must be some other sibling thing he didn’t know about but he assumed Magenta gave a good telepathic argument because Amber groaned, finally relenting. 

“Ok. Fine! I didn’t see you here tonight.”

“Same here,”

But before Amber could re-enter the diner, she marched right up to Zach, poking at his chest more aggressively than he would have liked, “You make sure she gets back in one piece or so help me, no super-duper shit you got going on would stop me from kicking your ass. You’re lucky it’s me and not our dad that you have to answer to right now. Because he is much worse,” And she made her way towards the doors before pivoting around, “And no funny business with my sister!”

Magenta banged her head against Zach’s arm, “ _Amber.”_

“Don’t die shit-face!” 

Magenta raised her head from his jacket, “Can you bring some mozzarella sticks home?” Without looking, he just knew that she was sporting a shit-eating grin.

“Fuck you,” was her sister’s response before she headed back inside.

* * *

The ride home was awkward. It wasn’t much of a ride when not too long after they started, Magenta hopped off the handlebars and just started walking so Zach had no choice but to walk the bike alongside her. It wasn’t safe for them to be out this late and now that he needed to take her home and it was a little ways away from his place, it was going to take longer to get there.

“You good?” he called out to her, “I know it’s not comfortable, but we don’t have the basket anymore,”

“It’s fine,” she strode, ahead, arms crossed but still holding the bag of fries.

“I was going to suggest maybe we can switch places. You ride and I get to be on the handlebars. Seems fair,” She stopped and he saw a hint of smile on her face, or it was more of a grimace. He couldn’t tell in the low lighting. Then she resumed walking, and he trailed behind her. 

“So your sister… she seemed nice. Apart from the yelling and sneering,”

He tried to keep the vibe light but he wasn’t sure if he was making it worse or not. He could tell that she was getting too caught up in her thoughts. He understood.There was so much to unpack from her interaction with her sister. Some heavy stuff. Back at the diner, he had figured she was close with her family. It was a comforting thought because if she wasn’t willing to open up to her friends maybe she could at home because it wasn’t good to bottle stuff up. And he knew that from experience. 

But there was that initial animosity between them and the secret-keeping, it seemed that there wasn’t much open dialogue at home either. He just hoped it was better with her brother. 

After no response from her, he kept going, “So she has streaks too,” he said, lamely. 

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t she?”

He scrunched his nose in confusion, “Was dyeing your hair some sort of sister bonding thing?”

Then it was Magenta’s turn to be confused before it dawned on her, “Oh. Shit. Um... no. That’s her natural hair. This,” She tugged at her purple locks “is my natural hair.”

He nearly stumbled into his bike in surprise. “Really?”

“Why do you think my name is Magenta? All of us have it. But not my dad since he’s the civilian and my mom’s the Super. Some genetic mutation. Probably it was a way to tell that it’s us when we shapeshift and not just some regular animal.”

He thought back to the ‘freak academy’ comment Amber made, “But she doesn’t have powers.”

“Neither does my brother. I’m just lucky, I guess.”

Zach rolled in front to block her from going any further, “Maj, can you please get back on the bike? I need to get you back,”

Magenta nodded and wordlessly slid onto the handlebars. He pushed on and they rode in silence for the rest of the trip. They continued up until they neared Zach’s place, it was on the way towards her house but he needed to take a detour because he was getting a bit exhausted. It was tough to operate the bike with the added weight of another person. They got off the bike and Zach went to go sit on the curb, rubbing the sweat off his face. Magenta went to join him, looking at the ground, fiddling with her fingers.

“I’m sorry.” she whispered. 

“It’s fine. Just not used to riding with another person,”

“No. I was being a bitch earlier. You were trying to help.”

He sighed, “I was being pushy. I shouldn’t expect you to tell me your whole life story. Like you said, it’s your business. I shouldn’t be all over you,.”

“You were being a good friend- I just… made it weird. I didn’t know… how to go about it.”

Zach took her in. It was not the first time he had seen Magenta get uncomfortable and awkward, but this was new. Her arms crossed, as if she was shrinking herself up as she would to transform into a guinea pig, and her refusal to meet his gaze as if she was admitting something she normally wouldn’t.

Then he remembered all the stuff he learned tonight about her. She hadn’t told him directly, but he had an inkling that Magenta had some sort of sheltered, troubled upbringing. With all the stuff about her not going out as much, not seeing much of town, and the way she talked about family- his heart sank at the thought, but would he be wrong to assume that maybe Magenta didn’t really have friends before Sky High? The way she clammed up when they were getting a bit too close, not recognizing boundaries at times but then keeping too much distance during others- it explained some stuff.

He would have marked down Ethan as Magenta’s friend before coming to Sky High, but Ethan didn’t know much about the girl after having lived near her and attending the same school for 3 years. She had probably stuck with him due to familiarity- she probably hadn’t expected Ethan to be jumping the gun and befriending a Stronghold and being roped into a group of really sociable people. 

“It’s not… it’s not weird,” The blonde assured her, “It’s just something to get used to because I’m always going to be concerned. I’m always going to care about you….” The girl lifted her head and stared at him.

“I mean,” he stammered, “that’s just how I am with my friends. But as your friend, you can tell me when I’m being a nimrod and overstep. You know, you don’t have to tell me everything that’s going on with you if you don’t want to. But if you really need help, just ask. I’ll help you. That goes for Will, Layla, Ethan, and Warren too- we got your back. No judgement or anything,”

He knew that it wasn’t an easy fix. She was still going to be closed off and be reluctant to tell him anything. But he needed to let her know that he was still going to be there for her. Tonight had been a wake up call. Just because he was nice and took her out for milkshakes didn’t mean he was entitled to her secrets. He needed to be more patient with her, and if or when she decides to confide in him, then he’d be there. 

“Ok,” She said, appreciating the sentiment, “I’m still sorr-”

Zach echoed her words from weeks ago. “There’s nothing to apologize for,” He rose from his spot and extended a sweaty hand her way to help her up, “C’mon. We need to get you home.”

He moved for his bike but the girl tugged him back, hands still grasping his, “Um… Zach?”

“Yeah,”

She sighed before asking, “Is it ok if I study with you? Could use some help catching up on what I missed.”

Zach nodded. He knew that it wasn’t easy for her to ask. He didn’t think he could recall a time when he heard her directly ask for help and he didn’t think she was ready to do so with him just yet. But they were on a time crunch and it was a big test, she couldn’t deny that she was in a tough spot.

Ten minutes later, after silently returning the bike to the garage, they were back in his room. They came back they way they snuck out- Magenta taking her usual route via tree and Zach quietly entering through the back door and heading up the stairs. 

He immediately had her look through his notes- his penmanship wasn’t the best but Magenta claimed it was still readable- and picked out the chapters that she wasn’t familiar with. He wasn’t a total idiot and he wasn’t a Grade A genius like Ethan, but he did his best walking her through the different concepts and equations. They were able to talk through the ones that tripped the both of them up like graphic inequalities.

They were gathered around his desk, textbook open, scribbling down old equations to practice with while munching on their cold fries. He should have gauged his energy and called it a night after yawning too many times in a row at around 2, but he still needed to make sure _he_ knew the material too. Teaching Magenta was good for him, acting as a bit of a refresher for those particular chapters.

It had been hours since they started, it was now approaching 3 and the bus came at 7. They had to close up shop and need to book it to Magenta’s house. Zach made her tiptoe downstairs with him instead of letting her climb onto the roof. He saw how bleary-eyed she was, she might not be able to make the jump onto the tree or down the roof gutter let alone turn into guinea pig form. 

They resumed what was now their usual biking position, and he managed to keep his eyes open and his wits about him when riding down the streets. Good thing Magenta didn’t live as far away as the _Tubthump_ and was able to roll up to her street in a record of 5 minutes. He parked the bike in front of Ethan’s house actually just so they wouldn’t be spotted from her place. Nobody should be awake, but he needed to play it safe. 

Magenta wobbly set herself down on the ground as soon as Zach stopped all while taking sharp glances back at her house. Unlike Zach's room, her room was facing the backyard so it would be her parents' room facing the street instead he came to find out later. She made her way around the bike and without warning, planted a kiss on Zach’s cheek. 

“You’re pretty cool, you know that, Glowworm?” she remarked just as he turned scarlet from the kiss. 

“Um… well… I…” He tried to form words but he wasn’t sure it was it because he was dead tired or the fact the girl he had been pining over had just laid one on him that he was just slurring his way through his sentences,“I try.”

“I know. And that means a lot,” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she walked backwards towards her place, “Thanks, again.” 

“Anytime,” But despite his weary state, he knew he meant it. He’d be there for her anytime. Even at 3 o’clock in the fucking morning. 

“See you in a couple hours,” 

All he could do was wave at her as she crossed the street and scurried off to her house. He stayed there, grinning like a total idiot.

He wanted to ride back to his place, howling into the night, pumping a fist in the air like Judd Nelson at the end of _Breakfast Club_ and reveling in this post-kiss high right up until he crashed due to exhaustion. Any other night, he probably wouldn’t be able to sleep, he would have been up, replaying that over and over in his head- like he would every time after she made one of these bedroom visits. But now he had a whole night’s worth of events he could look back on.

He didn’t have time for that right now though. He was going to make the most of 3 and half hours of sleep before roughing out a 6 hour school day. He swung the bike around to head in the direction of home. Pedaling on through, he thought:

_It was totally worth it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was Part 2 of The Third Visit. It was super long I had to cut it into two parts. I thought it was very important to learn a little bit more about Magenta. Hope you enjoyed!


	5. The Fourth Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach gets to show his glow while Magenta makes a startling confession...

Chapter 5 'The Fourth Visit'

He was sound asleep when he heard a light rapping against his window.

It was a cold, rainy Thanksgiving night and he had been put through the ringer of passive-aggressive familial interactions, mostly between his dad and his Gramps on his mom's side. Thank goodness for Stephanie's cooking otherwise the night would have been a total bust. Well, he couldn't say that, he had a pretty good time catching up with his grandparents and playing a bit of football in the yard with his younger cousins.

But he was beat.

He had passed out around 10, as soon as the last of his extended family headed out in the drizzling rain for home. It was close to midnight when he heard the noise by the window. He first dismissed it as the rain, but then the tapping came again. Zach sighed and rolled over in his sheets when he noticed a shadow casted by a figure outside his window.

He knew who it was. How could it be anyone else? It would be ironic if one day the figure standing forebodingly on his roof was an actual criminal like he had originally thought all those months ago when these visits began.

Since the last time she came by, and since they both barely passed their math midterm, he was happy to report that things between him and Magenta had never been better. They were interacting a little bit more at school, even during their class. He would often find himself texting her at random moments, usually cracking jokes and recommending songs he thought she would like. He was pretty sure he had built up this kind of repertoire with her now that he was sure how to navigate her dark humor.

Magenta was even able to hang with the group on more occasions than usual. It had started off with the party at Larry's but they all ditched it not too long into the night and actually ended up at the _Tubthump_ (where Teeny had been a gracious host and treated the group to some free shakes).

And then, there was his birthday, Magenta and all of their friends showed up at his place for a little get-together. They had lemon cake- his favorite-and had opened presents. He nearly choked on his own spit when he opened Magenta's gift: a new basket for his bike. Good thing he had recovered and just burst in a fit of laughter, only him and Magenta, leaving everyone else confused.

 _I'll tell you later,_ he remembered saying to Ethan but he never did. He figured that it had been such a special night for the two of them, that it seemed so wrong to share that with someone else.

He also couldn't help but notice that Magenta had also been trying to reach out to Layla more too. He hadn't been sure if it was his talk last time that got her to be more inclined on being a bit sociable. He had figured that they would talk outside of school given that Magenta was comfortable enough to include Layla on their bedroom window visits. Once, he had round the corner and ran into them huddled near Layla's locker, giggling away at something. He had heard her giggle before but this was one of those high-pitched, girlish ones.

He couldn't believe it.

Gradually getting his wits about him, he turned on his lamp and pattered towards the window. He slid it open to find Magenta staring at him with red eyes, only her purple hoodie protecting her from the battering rain. He shivered, both from the cold and, seeing the traces of tears on her already soaking face.

She eyed him up and down. He had forgone a shirt before heading to bed and his hair must have been some disheveled mess from having just gotten out of bed, "Were you asleep?"

"Yeah, but-"

Somehow, Magenta was even more dejected. "Shit. I should go." She crawled for the tree branches hanging over his roof.

"Wait, hey!" He whispered-shouted at her. He rubbed his eyes and slapped his face a few times to rouse himself, "It's fine. Not even tired. See?" He leaned out the window, extending his arm to her, getting slightly showered by the rain, "Get in here. It's pouring outside."

Magenta's eyes flitted to the trees for a second. Zach sighed, "You're gonna catch a cold. Get in here." She was still uneasy but took his hand and let him guide her inside.

She landed on the floor and nearly slipped but was caught by Zach last second. He helped her towards his bed since it was the closest to the window so she could slip her boots off. He didn't care about getting his bed wet, Magenta was shivering. He couldn't imagine what would make her walk all the way over here in a storm like this.

"You good?"

"I'm fine," she sniffled.

He crouched in front of her now getting a better look at her in this lighting, "You look upset."

"I'm not," She had taken an interest on the floor once she sat on his bed, "I'm not gonna be here for long, I swear. Get some sleep."

"No. I need to make you sure you don't steal anything," he joked. He wouldn't want to try to sleep, knowing that Magenta was going through something rough right now. It'd be best to keep her company at least until the worst of the storm was over and he wasn't sure when that would happen.

"Seriously sleep,"

"While you sit there looking like someone pissed in your soup?" That got her to raise her head and glare at him, "Fine. But what do you plan on doing here?"

"Yeah, didn't really do much planning tonight," she remarked sullenly.

"I bet I have some old comic books lying around... somewhere," Zach walked off to his closet, rummaging around his unkempt piles of clothes in there,"

"I'm not really up for reading,"

"Oh shit. It must be serious," He threw a look back at her, and she still didn't look too amused. He resumed his search,"Okay, okay. We don't need to talk about it. But you do look like crap," He grabbed an old T-shirt and some plaid pajama pants- that were clean, he made sure. "Here." He tossed articles of clothing at her.

"Umm… thanks,"

Zach immediately whirled around at the sight of her shedding her large hoodie. It hadn't really set in yet when he was picking out clothes for her to wear, mainly because he was being a good host and not letting her catch pneumonia from wearing cold, damp clothes. But he was now realizing that there was a girl in his room, practically stripping- not practically, she was- just to put on his clothes. He tried to bide his time by plucking a shirt off the ground and putting it on himself.

When it was time for him to turn around, nothing prepared him for the warm feelings growing in his chest at the sight of Magenta wearing his long-sleeved shirt and wearing his pants. They were all oversized on her but she still looked amazing. He knew what it meant for a girl to wear a guy's clothes, whether it was a jacket or something- it was this sort of claim. He knew he sounded like a creep and that Magenta was her own person but he never realized how much he wanted to see Magenta wear his clothes until just now.

It dawned on him that Magenta was well aware of that concept. That probably made her hesitant to take his clothes and he cursed himself for putting her in such an awkward position. But she needed to be dry and warm.

He continued to be a good host and tried to offer some Thanksgiving leftovers but she politely declined. He sat with her for a couple minutes on his bed, just gauging the vibe. Magenta was clearly not in a mood to talk but he didn't want to leave her to her own devices. He had an idea. He returned to his closet and reached for the small TV he had with the VHS built into it, the one with Mickey Mouse ears on top. He used to watch movies on this thing like crazy when he was a kid; the box full of Disney movies in his closet could attest to that.

He carried it over with such ease and placed it on the floor and tugged on the cable to plug it into an outlet near his desk. Magenta threw a wary look his way, "I'm wide awake," He attested for hopefully the last time that night. Zach craned his neck to peer into the slot and found a tape already in there, " _Austin Powers_ is in here, is that cool?"

Luckily, it left off close to the beginning the last time he had watched it so it didn't take too long to wait for it to rewind. Turned out Magenta had never seen any of the other _Austin Powers_ movies before but he could tell that she wasn't getting into it. She had this despondent demeanor even when watching the more outrageous comedic bits of the movie.

He stopped the movie and went to go look for _School of Rock_ instead. Maybe that would be better.

He went to go search in his box of VHS tapes in his closet to find the movie. In the meantime, he heard Magenta shuffle over to his desk, "Why are your CDs and tapes all over like that?"

"Been trying to make a playlist. For my stream,"

He had to put all of his streaming stuff on hold due to what happened with Dwayne and then the stress of passing his midterms was too much. During the Thanksgiving break, he had been focusing more on including more of the records he got from Layla while putting the hunt for the Santo and Johnny record on hold. Then along with his birthday he came into some cash, but when he went to the record shop he found out they had sold the record to some other dude.

It had bummed him out, came pretty close to getting into another panic attack several times but he was slowly coming to terms with the fact that he might not be able to get that particular record in his possession again. It had been such a special record for him and his mom, but it wasn't the only thing to remember her by.

He fished through the tapes and was able to find the movie, he knelt down before the TV to replace it, "You're not chickening out?" he could hear her from her spot in the room.

"I'm done with that," he glanced up and gave a small smile, "I'm gonna go live tomorrow. I'll tell you how to find it."

"That'd be cool," She returned the warm expression, "That's… that's great, Zach." He couldn't help but full on beam at her, seeing her be proud of him. She knew that it had taken so much for him to get to this point.

"Uh, how's the writing coming along?"

Magenta seemed thrown off by the question. They don't talk about her scribblings, as she phrased it, in her purple book that often. It was the same purple composition book that she had left in his room all those months ago, the very thing that sparked these visits. It would normally come up with Zach would text her what she was doing. She never showed him what she was working on but she seemed to appreciate that he remembered.

"It's good. Going good. Been getting more inspiration lately,"

"That's great. Maybe you can show me sometime,"

"Yeah. One day,"

Then, all of the sudden a crack of lightning lit up the room before it went dark.

"Shit," Zach stumbled back on to the bed in the newfound darkness. No warm lamp light. No blue screen on the tiny TV set either, "The powers out."

"Ooh, really?" Zach opened his mouth to retort but all of the sudden he heard a crash and Magenta hiss in pain, "Woah. You ok?"

"I think I kicked over the TV,"

"Shit. Hold on," He closed his eyes and concentrated. He was a little bit rusty but he was sure he still got it. Slowly a greenish glow emanated from his person and he was able to see Magenta, who had been hopping on one foot and clutching the other one. She gained her composure, once she saw Zach use his powers, she slowly hobbled over his way and was able to plop on to the bed next to him.

"Your own personal flashlight,"

She muttered a 'thanks', staring at him in his glowing glory, "I don't think I've seen you use your powers since…" she let the sentence hang, not wanting to inadvertently cause Zach distress by mentioning that night.

"Yeah," he caught on, "Never really had an opportunity to use it unless I'm stuck in a dark ventilation shaft. It's useless otherwise,"

"Come on. It's a good power,"

"Yeah," He let himself recline on the bed, hands tucked underneath his head, still glowing,"Have you ever wondered what it'd be like if you had another power,"

"At times," She crawled over to him and laid on her back as he did, "But I'm all good. I prefer to be inconspicuous anyway,"

He raised his eyebrows,, "A guinea pig with purple highlights?"

"I'm still small, Zachary," she gave him a playful punch, "People think the heroes worth looking up to are heavy hitters. Those who use their might for combative measures,"

"Like the Commander? I mean he's got that super strength. Good for knocking down bad guys, even buildings,"

"Why the fuck would you want to knock down a building?"she scoffed, "But like, sorry not sorry to Will, the Commander's got a big ego. He underestimates his competition, and that's why Gwen, or whatever her real name was, was able to pull a fast one over him," Zach tensed at the mention of the girl who nearly killed them. He tried to will away that discomfort to pay attention to Magenta who was sighing along to the sounds of the rain hitting his window.

"While people walk in the room already thinking they're the shit, they're unprepared for when I get to pull a fast one on them. You'd be surprised what a rodent like me would be capable of." she stated.

"Not really surprised. You saved the freakin school from pancaking Maxville. And you didn't get any mad respect for it or anything,"

"Seeing how everyone was having this hero-hardon for Will after fighting with Warren in the cafeteria even though they shat on him for not having powers. Fuckin' posers," She turned to him and said as genuine as possible, "That's why you shouldn't care what anyone else thinks, Glowworrm."

"What did I even do on Homecoming anyway? You could have replaced me with a flashlight and it would have been the same."

"But we didn't have a flashlight. We had you," Magenta turned so that her whole self was facing towards him as if reassuring him was a full body effort. _It probably was,_ Zach thought.

"Remember, it was pitch black in there. We could have easily gotten lost in that maze,"

He thought back to the vents they were crawling through to escape the events unfolding at the gym. He remembered as soon as he crawled ahead the rays of his glowing revealed more than one path. They kept going straight but they have definitely crossed a couple intersections before meeting Will in the hallway. Reminiscing more about that night had Zach breathing a little hard, "I guess, "was his weak response.

"And who helped me through that maze to get to the library and grab the school's blueprints? Or told me how to get to Royal Pain's device? Or helped carry the babies into the lab to be de-pacificed?"

Zach nodded along and gave a weak smile, "A flashlight couldn't carry a baby."

"That's for damn sure! That's more than Dwayne ever did that night. Shitting in his diaper, I bet," The mental image made them both erupt in a hushed laughter. Then Magenta got quiet before studying his glowing green face, "Was someone at Thanksgiving giving you trouble?"

Like him, Magenta knew him long enough to read his tells too. He blew out a breath, "Stuff that my Gramps said, after the dinner, before the scrimmage with the cousins. He thought he was tryin' to cheer me up, tryin' to reassure me that one day my powers would manifest and be more like my dad's."

"What is your dad's power anyway?"

"He, uh, could shoot lasers out of his eyes..." He let the sentence set in for a couple minutes until Magenta gasped in realization.

"Red-Eye. Your dad's Red-Eye?" she spluttered.

 _Yup_. He figured she would have known who his dad was in the Super community. He wasn't as big as the Commander and Jetstream, but big enough for the Commander and Jetstream to know him. Once, his dad had single-handedly brought down some big name bad guys as well as weaponized his laser vision to cut down giant pieces of space debris that was projected to puncture the moon. Needless to say, it was a lot to live up to.

She shook her head, "Wait. I don't get it though. He's got that going on and you glow- what's the connection there?"

"Neon. He shoots out neon gas laser blasts out of his eyes. I just light up like the signs at the _Tubthump_ ,"

"It's just," her eyebrows knitted together, trying to piece it together. "I wondered how powers work and all that. Never really been around a lot of Supers or kids who are Supers before Sky High, apart from Ethan. And his mom was that giant glob like-thingy,"

"And Layla's mom can talk to animals and genetically, it somehow landed her with the ability to control plants. Will and Warren got exactly what their parents had." Zach continued, "Yup. Genetics is a crapshoot when it comes to powers."

He understood her confusion. And much like Will, Zach had also almost come to the conclusion that he may never get his powers until one morning, he had been in the basement and just… glowed.

"My mom…," she glanced down, pursing her lips, "she could shapeshift into woodland creatures."

"Woah, cool. Like what?"

"Squirrels, deer, an owl once, I think," Magenta threw a wistful glance up at the ceiling, laughing softly at the memory, "Good thing, genetics is a crapshoot, right? Birds aren't my thing."

"Have I heard of her?"

"She wasn't in the big leagues. Mostly local," Magenta sighed, "She's been… out of commission actually. She, uh, got into a really bad accident years ago. On duty,"

Zach frowned, "Shit. I'm sorry, Maj."

"It's fine," She tried to assure, her voice quivering slightly, "She's ok, physically, but she's not really there all the time" she gestured at her head, "Like _there_ there. She can't do a lot of stuff by herself. Can't really be left alone so…someone's gotta keep an eye on her,"

"Is that why… why you haven't been hanging out with us a lot?" Zach realized. It made sense. It all made sense. How Amber reacted when seeing Magenta out of the house. Magenta not wanting to upset her father...and-

"-And why I cut class," she finished his train of thought, "The commute from school to home- it fucked up the schedule. I was supposed to switch off with Amber when she went to go to her 'evening classes' on Mondays through Wednesdays. Turned out, she had another waitressing gig to get to."

She blew out another breath before admitting: "I lied to my dad and said school ended earlier than it did. And when no one was looking, I shapeshifted and escaped into the mouse hole near the bookshelf during class. Our tin can of a teacher is too ancient for him to notice anything smaller than a kid leaving the classroom."

"Shit," Zach remarked. He had always wondered why Magenta never got caught for it. She was right though, their teacher Mr. Calc was of an older model of mathematician robots and he did seem to, no pun intended, to get his wires crossed. One time, he had mixed up the students and handed back the wrong quizzes.

"Wait. Hold up. How do you get back from school?" She stayed quiet, " _Maj._ " He tried again.

"I... sneak onto the garbage truck. When the morning guy leaves,"

He sat up instantly, "Magenta, that's not safe!"

She followed suit, inching towards the edge of the bed,"I've been doing it every week this semester. It's fine!" she justified, as if that was going to mitigate the danger.

"You could fall off? Or get crushed?"

"That's rich. Haven't seen you get all worked up seeing me climb on your roof,"

"It's a second story window, not thousands of feet _above the ground,_ "

"Fair enough," Her palms flew to her temples, stretching her skin while emitting a low frustrated growl, "We got into a fight tonight. Me and my dad."

"Did he find out-?"

"No. It was the grades. Tin Can sent home a progress report and it didn't look too good,"

"You did okay on the midterm though,"

"But failed every other test and pop quiz," she gave a cruel laugh, "Pissed my dad off. But he can never know. He can never know the shit I've been doing, the shit I had to do so I could take care of mom and Sky. I couldn't explain why I didn't know the material. I got frustrated. Words were said..."

"Why can't you tell him?"

"He'd freak out like you just did! Just now about the garbage truck thing. Listen, he used to be this big hot shot reporter in the city. Once mom got hurt on duty, he moved us all to the suburbs. It's been tough and he'd been working to support us. I can't just give him more shit to worry about,"

Zach was getting the full picture, then something else clicked, "You never told him what happened about Homecoming then."

He couldn't imagine, having gone through what they all went through, to never bring it up with anyone. Especially your parents. There was so much she didn't tell them, probably to put her family's mind at ease. Her mom was incapacitated because of Hero work, the rest of her family were civilians- no one would have understood...

"He would have pulled me out of school if he knew. He thought Sky High was going to keep me safe,"

_Not the other way around._

It got quiet again, and it took the beat of silence to finally realize that Magenta had been slowly moving off the bed, trying to put some distance between them.

"Maj.There's something else, isn't there?" He watched her carefully, her grim expression illuminated by the green of his glow.

She closed her eyes, not willing to divulge even more, but was soon coaxed by Zach laying his hand on top of hers.

"My dad...He talked about getting me a tutor. He doesn't want me going out anymore until I get my grades in check,"

 _Oh_.

"But… but, um… he doesn't even know you come here though. He can't stop you from coming here, right?"

Zach winced at how desperate he sounded. And he knew he sounded so selfish, worrying if Magenta wouldn't be able to see him anymore when her time with the rest of the group was in jeopardy. No more mall hangs or group studies. If her and Layla made plans, those were probably out the window, and he knew how a huge deal it was for Magenta to befriend other girls, given what she had confessed about her difficulty getting close to people and seeing as the only female presence is Amber- who was _such_ a delight-

"I'm gonna need the time to get my grades together though..." Magenta tried to put it as delicately as possible, "I'm pretty sure he might pull me out of Sky High if all he thought I was doing was fucking around. He's dead set on me having good grades so I can get into a good college, get a nice, safe but boring desk job, hopefully out of the way of Hero work."

Zach was trying his hardest not to show signs of complete and utter disappointment. He couldn't imagine going through the next 3 years without Magenta. The thought literally made him queasy, like she was the one person besides Stephanie who he would share everything with. Her dark, sometimes insulting humor was something he had grown to appreciate and play off of, her insightful remarks and the way she would rattle off passages from _American Gods_ or whatever book she was reading at the time- all of this he had learned from their time together.

He scooted over closer to her, "Maj, that's not fair of him to not let you hang out with anyone though. I mean, lately you've been just so… so," _Lighter? Happier?_ He wasn't sure how to phrase it without offending her, but it was true, "Did you try to reason with him? Before you left?-"

"I have been trying, Zach!" She leapt from the bed and stormed over to the window, pacing, her hands woven through her hair as if to scratch at her scalp in aggravation, "That's all I've been fuckin' doing! School and my fucked up family, and now- all this! Everyone seems to want a part of me, don't they? I just… I just can't-t. I'm trying my b-best but-something's gotta give- I c-can't-"

Once her voice had begun to shake, Zach raced over to her to try and quell her, "Woah, woah, hey- Maj."

He tentatively reached to place a gentle grip on her shoulder and stooped down so she could see him better. She looked up at him, tears clearly trailing down her face. She had been swaying back and forth, getting caught up in the wave of emotions she was experiencing. He wasn't sure what happened when all of the sudden she barrelled into him, basically leaning into his chest, he instinctively wrapped his arms around her as if to catch her from falling again.

It fucking broke him to hear Magenta in so much pain. He couldn't help but tears welling up in his own eyes just feeling his chest taking the brunt of her sobs. All he could only do right now was hold on until the worst of it subsided, rubbing her back and making those shushing noises he hoped that was more comforting than patronizing.

He should have known. He should have known that Magenta was cracking from all this pressure. He should have caught it the morning after the all-nighter. They both had been incredibly weary but he saw Magenta able to pull herself together to seem like her usual, regularly functioning self- like it was nothing. Like she had been doing it for a long time now. He had seen her, literally in the face of danger, completely composed, never hesitating to crawl into that pipe and save the school. Never hesitating to hop onto a flying, metal death trap just so she could be home in time to take care of her mom. Probably putting on a calm face at home, pretending to be ok for the sake of her dad. It just seemed she never had the luxury of just processing it all.

He could feel her head shift around so she could breathe better. He eased his hold on her in time to hear her say:

"I'm so tired, Zach,"

He sighed, "I know." He pulled away and saw that besides her sniffling, the crying had generally stopped.

She began furiously wiping her face and nose with her hands, "I'm so fucking stupid."

He frowned at the sudden self-bashing, "No, no you're not."

"I knew that if I spent time out of the house, if I got involved- I'm not gonna be there when my family needs me the most," She wiped her runny nose with the sleeve of her (his) shirt, "I wasn't thinking when I left tonight. Look, I'm in some guy's room in the middle of the night because I couldn't get over myself and just stayed home like I'm supposed to. It's fucking Thanksgiving. And I even," she wildly gestured at his bed, "interrupted your sleep,"

She shrugged off the hand that was still on her shoulder, not meeting his eyes, "Amber's right, I don't care and my actions just- just make it worse for everyone." She went for the window, trying to slide it open.

Zach surged forward and grabbed her hand, "Maj, wait."

"I have to go back," she tried to tug away from his grip.

"It's still pouring outside!"

"Whatever. It's what I fucking deserve,"

That got him to use a bit more force than he normally would to grab her by the waist and dragged her from the window, "No, it's not!"

She squirmed a bit in his hold but soon relented, sighing and stood where he planted her. He retracted his arms, to run his hand through his hair, letting her cool down for a bit. 

"Look, I uh, I'm sorry about your mom," he sympathized, "I'm sorry that you never really got to have the time to act like a stupid teenager because here you are, making the most grown up decisions that I can't even…." he stopped, hearing himself growing marginally louder. He brought it back down to a whisper, "I can't believe Amber would say that to you. To you, of all people. You care. You care more than you could ever admit to anyone, and you usually don't."

Magenta was still unresponsive so then Zach asked "Why were you there that day? The day I had my panic attack,"

"Told you. Was getting my wallet,"

"Bullshit. You and I know that,"

"Fuck. Fine," she crossed her arms, "Dwayne. He... uh... did a number on you. Just wanted to... I don't know," she uttered out finally, confirming his suspicions.

"Listen to me. This is gonna be a hard pill to swallow but," he paused, picking out his words because he could not, he absolutely could not fuck this up:

"You're, like, this amazingly thoughtful person. And I only get to hang out with you a fraction of the time. Time, that you honestly have no business of wasting on me by the way," that earned a scoff from her, "I bet you'd want to move the fuckin' stars and the moon for your family, and I'm sure you have. But, you know they're gonna love you even when you can't."

"You don't get it. I have to be that kind of person. I have to act like I have it together when I don't. If I show cracks, then it all falls apart,"

"We're like 14. You think someone's gonna look at us and expect us to have it together? You're allowed to do other things.To hang out with your friends, to live your own life,"

"I can't have it all, Zach. The good grades, the happy family, the social life- I can't do it-"

"-By yourself," he interjected, "You act like you're all alone in this and you're not able to get everything off your chest."

"For good reason," She crossed her arms, her voice getting quieter, "You don't wanna see me like this all the time. Because I can assure you I feel like this, like a mess, on the inside, all the fucking time,"

"I don't mind,"

"Zach, I'm serious,"

"Me too," he affirmed. He stepped closer to her, nearly replicating the stance they were in not only minutes ago where he was bending down to look at her directly. He needed her to see that he absolutely meant it.

"Like I said last time. I'm always gonna care about you. I understand what it's like. To try and live up to expectation. That your worth is tied to this idea of what you're supposed to be. But, guess what? You know when I feel the most fulfilled? When I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be? When I'm just chillin with my friends, putting together mixes, this- right here. Because I get to be me. And I get to be around people who are okay with me being me," He looked down as he shuffled his feet, "Even when being me involves panic attacks and all-nighters."

"You haven't had any more since then?" Magenta inquired. They hadn't talked about it too much but he knew that ever since then Magenta, in her own way, had been keeping an eye on him whenever anybody mentioned Dwayne or said something related to the incident.

"Nope. Came close a couple times but I was able to manage them," he reassured as he stood up straight, "Luckily, I had someone there that first time when I really needed it," He gave a stiff laugh, "I remembered the way my dad looked when I had my first panic attack. One of the few times, I saw him afraid. I thought you would be too. I thought I'd scare you away."

"I don't think you could," she then asked, "I'm not scaring _you_ away?"

Months ago, he wouldn't have been sure to answer the question. But now, after all they had been through, he could resolutely say: "No."

That seemed to dislodge something in Magenta and she let out a sigh- of relief? He hoped. He didn't realize that he could see the details of her face more clearly now. He wasn't sure when the distance between them had gotten smaller.

"Maj?"

"Yeah?" she repeated in the same hushed tone.

"You're pretty fucking incredible,"

She inadvertently winced. A habit. But he could tell that the comment was reaching her, given how she was shyly looking away from him, biting her lip, "You too, Glowworm."

"I just think you deserve someone moving the stars and the moon for you. For a change," He blurted out before he could stop himself.

She turned her head and locked eyes with him, "It's a lot of work though." her tone was teasing but he could see a flash hope reflected in her brown eyes.

"I think it'd be worth it,"

"You know…," she arched an eyebrow, straining to poke his chest lightly in their close proximity,"that was pretty fucking cheesy. The stars and the moon shit."

"Hey," he put a hand on his heart, pretending to take offense, "But, it seems pretty well-received to me."

"Shut up, Glowworm,"

"Make me," was his natural response.

The two had been grinning during their usual back and forth, but Zach's words wiped the smile off Magenta's face. But before Zach could ask what was wrong, she was already leaning towards him, propped up on her toes, hooking her hand around his neck and pulling his face down to meet hers in a kiss.

His surprise only lasted only for a moment before he slowly brought his hands to her hips to steady the both of them. He closed his eyes, letting himself get lost in the thrill of the kiss. He had had his fair share of kisses in the past, a few short, sloppy pecks from middle school girlfriends that barely lasted a week, but nothing that had left him feeling breathless and his heart beating on overdrive.

Nothing too salacious happened in the way their lips were meeting. Not at all. But he was on fire. He couldn't help but experience all those electric feelings, all those crappy cliches about sparks or whatever. He had been dreaming of this moment for so long that now that it was happening, he had this growing, overwhelming feeling in the pit of his stomach- could be the nerves or his pure excitement.

He wanted to make it last, but he was still too green on the kissing department so when the need for air became too much for them, they had to break apart. His eyes were still closed and he knew he was wearing a stupid smile on his face. It wasn't until he heard Magenta gasp that his eyes snapped open. He noticed two things 1) he was still glowing the whole time and 2) he wasn't sure how but he was glowing even brighter now, brighter than he had ever been in his months of having his powers.

Embarrassed, he immediately de-glowed. The power was still out, but it was fortunate that he had Magenta close and they were holding on to each other. Good to know that they weren't totally lost in the dark.

They stayed there, the sound of their labored breathing and the rain outside filling their ears.

"Shit," he said once he managed to get his breathing in order, "I didn't know what happened."

"It's fine. You just got… a little excited,"

"Huh?" He was confused until he was able to make the connection. His heightened emotions must have… made him brighter? Now, he was even more embarrassed, it was weird having a clear sign that he _very_ much enjoyed the kiss.

Well… he could think of one other thing- but somehow the glowing was worse.

"I mean, I practically pounced on you though..." she said in an attempt to make him feel better. And it did. His mind was still slow on the uptake since the kiss, but it was coming back to him: Magenta did initiate it. The girl he had been crushing on for months _kissed_ him.

He wanted to talk. He wanted to know what this meant, for them. He was surprised that he wasn't freaking out and embarrassing himself even more. Like _holy shit._ But then Magenta let out a small yawn and he decided that that was enough… um, excitement, for one night.

"Um… can you please stay? You shouldn't be out there right now," They were both getting real tired and obviously he wasn't going to let Magenta walk home in the rain. She hummed in agreement.

He took her by the hand and led her towards his bed. He had her scoot over to the side of the bed bordered by the wall. She must have been tired because she followed his lead without making a sarcastic comment about making sure he had noble intentions or something along the lines of that. He went to set an alarm on his clock before remembering that there was no electricity. Luckily, his watch was on his nightstand, "I'll set my watch alarm for a couple hours from now.

"Hopefully it'll lighten up out there and the power will come back on soon. And I'll take you home," He went and set it up for 5:30 in the morning, "You need to catch some Z's."

He heard Magenta let out another exhausted yawn before making herself comfortable in his blanket. Zach rolled over and even though it was pitch black at this point, he wanted to make sure she was settled in before he let sleep overtake him.

* * *

Zach woke to a soft knocking on his door. Stephanie's voice filtered through from the hallway, saying something about breakfast. He hummed and lifted his head that had been pressed into his bed to feel sunlight hit his face. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that the rain had stopped.

The chill of last night must have gone with it because his blankets were pooled around his feet and he must have shed his shirt in the middle of the night. His arms were draped over something and he had figured it was his pillow but it turned out to be Magenta, who had hogged a lot of the blanket to her side now that Zach wasn't using it.

She must have felt him stirring awake because she slowly came to, rolling over from where she was facing the wall to catch him rubbing his eyes, "Mornin'," he croaked out, admiring how Magenta looked with her hair all messed up from being enveloped in the blanket. She greeted him warmly, sitting up and stretching.

He sluggishly got out of bed and was in front of his nightstand. He picked up the watch and noted the time- " _Holy shit!_ " He made a double take between the watch and the window, "It's morning."

That got Magenta jumping out of his sheets, "Oh my god," she went to his side and read the time, " _8:45?_ "

They must have slept through the alarm. Zach immediately ran for his door, locking it not wanting his folks to barge in and bust them. Meanwhile, Magenta raced around the room trying to find her clothes that she came in, muttering a series of curses. Zach found them on a pile near his desk and he tossed them her way, it was still wet.

Feeling her clothes in her hands, she panicked. There was no way she could change out of Zach's clothes, "My dad's gonna fuckin' kill me,"

Zach hurried to find a plastic bag for her to carry her stuff in. "Here. Head out first and I could grab my bike-"

She was already sitting on the windowsill zipping her boots up, "No, your folks are up. They're gonna ask questions."

"I should be taking you home,"

"My dad seeing you pull up to my house- he'll kill you too,"

He nodded. He understood. She was already in hot water with her dad already before she showed up at his window. He didn't want to make it worse than he already had, "You gonna be alright? The roof might be slippery."

"I think I can manage," She swung her leg over and hopped onto the roof, grabbing onto the windowsill to make sure she didn't slide down. She looked back up at him, "Um… I'm not sure what's gonna happen, but… thanks. For talking me down last night."

"No problem,"

"I'll see you when I see you," She tried moving alongside his window by gripping the sill.

"Wait," Zach stopped her, "I think you forgot something."

"What?" Then Zach learned over the window to give her a quick peck on the cheek. Like he had said last night, he was done chickening out. She flushed instantly.

"You know what this looks like right? Like a knight climbing up a tower to the fair princess?" He noted from the way they were oriented.

She quirked an eyebrow, "That would make you the princess?"

"Then I'll be the happiest princess in the whole goddamn castle,"

Magenta's shoulders were shaking from how hard she was laughing, "Bye, Zach."

There was no 'Glowworm' or weird salute. Then she was off, carefully navigating the twigs and the slippery surface to jump on the tree branch like she had in the first visit. It was just as incredible watching it the second time, albeit it worried him since it was a bright morning and his folks or, worse, his neighbors would catch Magenta make her transformation.

He observed dutifully from the window, making sure she didn't take a nasty fall from the tree or anything. It was all he could do at this point since he wasn't able to take her home. She maintained her guinea pig state as she scurried down his driveway. She hid behind another tree near his mailbox, out of his view. She was about to break out into a run but she froze.

Zach stuck his head out the window to get a better look. He saw Magenta flipping someone off before taking off, and his first thought was she encountered her sister or something. But no.

Once, Magenta was gone he could see, as clear as day now, that there was a kid walking his dog- wait, not just any kid- it was Larry. He could see now that Larry was giving him a thumbs up, probably wearing some shit-eating look that made his stomach churn.

Fuck. He must have seen everything: Magenta sneaking out of his window, sporting his clothes- it didn't help that he was currently without a shirt. Larry made a shushing motion over at him, winking. Zach knew exactly what he thought they did.

He closed the window immediately and face-palmed himself. _Stupid. Stupid_. He should have hurried her out of the house and not keep her on the roof long enough for people to see. And now the smallest kid with the biggest mouth in Sky High saw something that he shouldn't have-

He was definitely going to hear about this on Monday.


	6. The Fifth Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach confesses to something which changes the course of his and Magenta's relationship

Chapter 6 ‘The Fifth Visit’

Zach had done something he shouldn’t have

He had known it wasn’t his place to, but he went and did because he knew the alternative was going to be worse. Right? 

Fuck, he knew he had to tell Magenta eventually, especially since this sorta, kinda involves her.

Who was he kidding- it had everything to do with her. 

It had been a whirlwind past few weeks, first of all. 

For one thing, the whole school knew about him and Magenta spending the night together. And he knew how that fucking sounded. But it hadn’t been like that. And he had tried to set the record straight numerous times but everyone thought he was trying to save face. He had even found Larry and tried to tell him but all he got was a wink and a, “Sure buddy, whatever you say.”

Also, it turned out Magenta hadn’t been caught by her dad when she got home the morning after Thanksgiving. _Thank god._ He hadn’t had the chance to meet Mr. Lewis and he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be too keen on meeting the boy he thought had slept with his daughter… But she had been put under a pseudo-lockdown, not really hanging out with their friends and been spending more time studying with her tutor who just so happened to be Ethan.

Speaking of Ethan, Zach had to deal with the constant questions from not only their beloved genius but from Will too. Layla had already known about Magenta’s visits since she had been brought along that one time and he had been so grateful that she never brought it up to the others. He didn’t like keeping secrets from his friends, but he liked that there was something that was just between him and Magenta- something special. He had this irrational thought that if he told anyone, it was like, breaking the spell- like if everyone knew then it would be… different?

And it had been. 

He was currently planted in his desk chair, finishing up his playlist for his latest stream while Magenta was sitting criss-cross-applesauce on his bed making adjustments to their Hero Support diorama. They had this big final group project for their last week before Winter break and it was Magenta and Zach’s turn with the mini reconstruction of the city’s financial district. She had come home with him from the bus since she didn’t have to supervise her mom and brother today and they were the ones who needed to finish their work for the project. 

He was distracted, to say the least, hoping that Magenta didn’t catch him slipping and inadvertently show his typical signs of distress. He thought by getting his tracks together would be enough for him to center himself before he could face her. 

Seeming to appear by the thought of her, Magenta came up from behind and gently peeled the headphones off of him, “I bet it sounds good, Glowworm. But we need to finish this up. We got to present this tomorrow.”

He nodded, pointing to his screen in the midst of setting up the stream, “Need to make sure it’s gonna be good,”

“It will be. Isn’t most of it that one band that you just got into? The Monkeyz or whatever?”

“It’s Gorillaz, Maj!” 

He knew she was messing with him. He had been talking her ear off about Gorillaz ever since ‘Feel Good Inc.’ dropped on the charts. It was like nothing he ever heard and when he bought the album some weeks ago, it blew his mind. The genre-hopping, the exploration of new thresholds with no fear- of course he was hooked. 

“I’ll be done in a minute, promise,” he assured.

She was still hovering over him from behind, rubbing his shoulders. She dropped down to whisper in his ear, “Fine. But if you don’t get over here in the next 5 minutes, I’m crossing your name off on the byline.” She accompanied the threat with a soft kiss on his cheek before returning to her spot on the bed. 

Zach reached over to where she had kissed him and internally swore, knowing that she was making it hard for him to come forward with what he had done this morning. 

There were some upsides during these past few weeks. When Magenta had been finally allowed to leave the house, she would choose to spend that time with him. And only him. They had been going to the mall, chilling at the park, and making frequent trips to the _Tubthump_. There hadn’t been a moment when they had these kinds of outings without holding hands or one of them leaning their head against the others’ and it was nice. Although, they never do any of these things at school. Zach had figured Magenta didn’t want to add fuel to the fire with all the buzz about them, but they never really got to talk about what they were...

He had been getting to know more about her and her situation at home too. During their private time, she would divulge about her family and he slowly discovered the particulars regarding the incident that left Magenta’s mom mentally incapacitated. 

It had been some big bad who had rigged a building to blow. Out of a group of small time Supers that went to stop him- only Maj’s mom had made it out in one piece. But at a cost. Magenta never really never told him about the extent of her mother’s current condition, but there were times when she would cut their phone calls short to tend to her- making sure she ate dinner and making sure she took her medication. 

But she had to do all this while wrangling her younger brother, Sky, who seemed quite rambunctious from what Zach has heard about him, apparently also prone to getting up to mischief at school. And he had already met Amber, who was definitely not the touchy feely type and was especially hard on Magenta. 

He had already known that it hadn’t been easy for her this whole year, having to sacrifice a lot in order to do her part in taking care of her family. But now he got a better idea of what she was dealing with, from all sides. She could never take a break except for when she could hang out with him. Maybe that was why he did his best to make sure Magenta had a great time whenever they were out. It was his part in trying to help her. But he knew that if he had the chance, he could try to help her even more, try to relieve some of that stress she had been going through...

Once he had his songs up and running, he shuffled over to kneel in front of his bed, admiring the work that him and his friends had put together over the past few weeks. Mr. Boy had them putting together a visual presentation for their battle strategy for a simple bank robbery. It was interesting stuff, but it was practically done. Just a few things here and there. Apparently, Magenta had to tend to a broken clay figure. 

“Do you think Mr. Boy’s gonna mind if Ethan didn’t have a head?” 

“I think Ethan would say a thing or two,” he remarked, exchanging her empty plate of chicken fritters for a bottle of rubber cement, “Want anymore?”

“My heart screams yes but my stomach says no,” she rubbed her belly, “Your stepmom seemed so excited to see me today.” 

Zach knew it was probably because it was the first time Magenta had been over since they started being a thing. And naturally, he had told Steph, and naturally, she was thrilled for him. He loved Steph, really, but she could be over-doting at times. The moment they had walked through the door, she was already offering every food and beverage they had in the fridge. 

“Sorry, she’s just really… animated,”

“It’s fine. I don’t think she’d be as thrilled if she knew that this is the first time I, and only I, came over… using the front door,” she whispered the last part because the door to his room was wide open- Steph’s rules. He had broken out in a light flush when she had explained it to the both of them before climbing the stairs, which earned a loud laugh from Magenta. 

“Let’s hope she never finds out,” He double backed for his desk, trying to find the bank blueprint diagrams they were gonna use in their presentation, “Uh..speaking of parents. Have you told yours yet?”

Magenta hummed while concentrating on putting Ethan’s head back together, “About what?”

“Um… about us?” 

“Oh. No, I haven’t really gotten around to it yet,”

“Haven’t really gotten around to it?” 

Zach knew that it was a hard topic to broach at the moment with her family, with everything going on and her now just getting back into her dad’s good graces. But he had figured since they had been going out on dates and stuff right? But the thing was, they never really did make it official, they had never really talked about whether or not he could bust out the word ‘girlfriend’ yet. 

“I mean, it’s been some weeks now that we’ve been… well you know…,” 

“... what, Zach?” He couldn’t tell with his back turned if she was teasing or if she was just curious on how _he_ was labeling them.

“Well.. dating,” He swiveled on his heel and watched Magenta purse her lips and nodded. 

“Are we though?” she asked, somewhat amused. 

“I mean… we’ve been going out and like, we, like, do things…”

“-You can say the word ‘kissing’, Zach-”

“- and like everyone at school already thinks we are, so might as well,” he meant it to come off as a joke but Magenta shut her eyes and groaned. 

“So that automatically makes us a couple?” she tried to resume her focus on Clay Ethan, “Please don’t mention those perverted nimrods here. Safe space and all that shit,” she grumbled.

“It hasn’t been that bad, right?” 

“Well for you,” she said, a dark tone washing over her, “Don’t pretend that you didn’t get some newfound respect from upperclassmen tools.”

Zach didn’t flinch at her abrasive tone but stayed silent. They didn’t talk about all the attention they were getting the Monday after Thanksgiving because he honestly wanted to put it all behind them and keep his head low about it. He had heard the comments, the insinuations of what they thought he and Magenta did- some of the comments turning him beet red (and glowing green) if he pondered about them long enough. 

As embarrassing as it was, he couldn’t exactly refute that some of the seniors had been conversing with him suddenly since the news broke out. And if no one, not even Dwayne who had returned to school, had been messing with him since, then he could see why Magenta would think he wouldn’t want to spill the beans on what really happened that night. 

“To be fair, I was trying to tell Larry what happened but he didn’t believe me. And it’s not like I can stop it. Once rumors fly around, it’s tough to do damage control because everyone’s gonna think you’re lying to save face,” _Screw the papers._ He was at her side, kneeling beside her on the floor, “What happened to not caring what they think?”

Magenta looked down, setting down Clay Ethan, “That was before I became the face of the new gossip block.” 

He remembered the first day back, remembering that he didn’t even get to school before the whispers started. Having everyone's eyes on him when he piled on the bus, then he recalled when Magenta and Ethan had got on and it was almost a sort of relief when the stares were redirected at her- well almost. 

He had to stomach the sight of Magenta being visually prodded at by their freshman class- she had maintained her usual composure, but as she went over to sit next to him he could see her knuckles nearly turning white at how hard she was gripping her messenger bag strap.

Of course, she hadn’t been handling it well. She had used to be the girl who flew under everyone’s radar, even with her purple highlights, dark clothes, and her unusual name. But even as the rumors were some weeks old, people couldn’t help now but to stare at the two of them as they walked down the hall. Even today. 

“I’d rather have them think nothing of me when I’m actually something, than to have them think of me as something else than what I really am,” Zach almost got lost in the wording of that, but he was pretty sure he understood. Sorta.

Magenta’s face softened seeing as her words were leaving him with a dumb look on his face, “Sorry. It’s just… I don’t really care if people thought we hooked up. It’s just, I don’t want there to be a big deal about it. I don’t like all this attention.”

He nodded, bringing his hand to blanket hers, “I get it. I get it. Hopefully, with the new semester they would find new shit to talk about.” 

“Can we have Warren and Will wreck the cafeteria again? People were on that shit for weeks,”

“Why stop there? They should wreck the library too,” 

“We do need new computers,” They shared a grin whilst contemplating on setting their friends loose to damage more school property.

“Hey,” Magenta shifted to face him. It was a weird sort of position hierarchy with her on the platform of his bed and him on the floor, craning his head slightly to look up at her, “I’m gonna tell my folks… eventually. You know how it is. Can’t exactly spring it on them.”

“Still not exactly springing it on them if it’s been happening for weeks,” He went to sit beside her on his bed. If he had come off of as slightly miffed, then he sorta was. All the stuff that Magenta had been bringing up, was stirring some unpleasant feelings that he really didn’t want to get into right now, especially when he was planning on confessing something to her today...

“It’s just there’s a lot of things I don’t really talk to them about. My family don’t really know much about my personal life. I’m not like you and your stepmom,” she explained.

“It’s not because you’re… embarrassed by me, right?” 

Magenta frowned, “No. Not at all,”

“Then, why don’t you wanna hold my hand at school?” he shot back, “I mean, it’s one thing to not tell your parents but it’s not like anything we do at school is gonna get back to them.”

He couldn't help but let that tidbit bother him. He knew he had said to himself that he kinda wanted to keep their little secret visits, well… a secret. He thought it was nice being alone with her, it would be better to get to know her in this kind of setting than any other. And now that they knew each other pretty well at this point, even with some of the ugly parts of themselves put on display- it kinda hurt his feelings that she seemed to not want to tell anyone about them. Fuck, even their friends had never seen them like this together. 

He knew from some rational part of his body that she wasn’t embarrassed by him. Maybe it was his fucking insecurities, and him just making sure that it wasn’t about him and that she had her own reasons. He had figured that since everyone knew about them then they might as well roll with it. 

It didn’t help that Magenta was quiet and pulling her hand from right under his, “Can we not talk about this right now?”

“Maj,” he called for her, but she was already moving away from him and digging through her bag to try to find her copy of the assignment instructions, tossing items onto his bed in the midst of her search. 

“I can’t be out for too long and we need to get our work done,”

He sighed then rose to his feet, “Fine,” he conceded before retreating to the desk and grabbing the papers he needed before. 

Zach gradually immersed himself in their work although with intruding thoughts fluttering into his focus every now and then. He and Magenta hashed out the particulars about the presentation and overall clearing up any confusion on which parts are whose. 

“So… Layla is extraction?”

Zach shuffled through his notes and scanned their timeline, “Uh… yes. And she’s going to be securing an exit for the hostages which would be from the roof.”

Magenta hummed, not getting the full picture yet, “She’s going to be using her vines and I know she said ladder-”

“-Yup a ladder-”

“But that’s an accessibility issue,” she pointed out, “The handicapped and disabled can’t climb. Or what if someone got injured?”

“Shit, you’re right. We’ll text her that and hopefully she can come up with something. I mean, you saw what she did to Penny. Maybe they can wrap around each person,”

“I don’t want it to wear her out. In case it goes real sideways,”

“Yeah, but this is an exercise in which we are sidekicks. We’re planning around our assigned hero’s tactics,” 

“Still can’t believe we got Jetstream,” 

“Made researching her tactics easier when we just simply asked her,” 

Zach was pretty grateful that Mrs. Stronghold agreed to help them with the project. And since she had a more diplomatic approach to these tense situations, they had to make a much more intricate plan that tried to avoid as much combat as possible especially since they were planning around a bank robbery. Good thing too. Pretty much none of them were well versed in that field. 

Zach peered over at the now lopsided clay figure, “I feel bad for Ethan. He’s pretty much bait.” 

“But if they leveraged his life, it’d be better than the hostages’,” Magenta reminded him, and it was hard for Zach to imagine Ethan putting his life on the line, being held at gunpoint but hopefully melting before they could put a bullet in his head. But at least Ethan was getting a piece of the action, all Zach would be doing is flash a light here or there to distract the robbers while Jetstream did most of the work. Typical of him to be dumped with glowstick work. 

Zach picked up the purple figure in the security room, “You finally get to show off your gifts of sneaking into places.”

Magenta huffed jovially, “Not really impressive since you caught me that first time.”

“Yeah, but you’re good at sneaking out of last period without me noticing for like the first few months,”

“I guess I almost never get caught,” she smirked.

Zach’s stomach turned at her statement, “Yup,” he managed to croak out. 

He set down Clay Magenta to quickly jot down his final notes on the blueprints when his pencil tip broke. He recognized his backpack set against his nightstand, “Uh… do you mind going through my bag and grabbing my sharpener? It’s in the front pocket.”

Magenta crawled a bit to the end of the bed to retrieve Zach’s bag. She dug through the mess that was his frontmost pocket to find his sharpener. She managed to get it and toss it over it to him. 

“Thanks,” he was about to continue with the notes when he heard Magenta remarking on how cluttered his pocket was and proceeding to pull out the papers, gum wrappers, and other miscellaneous items.

“Everything but the kitchen sink here, Glowworm. Like what even is this stuff?” 

“Sorry. I’ll throw it out,” Zach said whilst getting up from his chair.

She pulled out a crumpled yellow piece of paper and opened it up to see if it was worth keeping, “A late pass?”

Zach blanched. _Shit. Shit. Shit._

He advanced at her, scooping up his bag and swiping the paper from her hands before she could read further, “Yeah. That was from a while ago, just gonna throw that away now.” He backpedaled to retrieve the remaining trash that Magenta had pulled out from the pocket to dispose of. 

Magenta sat up straighter, zeroing in on his face. He immediately went to find the trash can. Yeah. the trash can so he could get rid of the evidence. This was not how he wanted her to find out. He just had to tuck it in his bag and not throw it out at school. 

“But I swore that slip said it was for today,”

Zach panicked, but kept his back towards her while hunched over the trash can, ripping up the yellow slip, “Oh really?” He tried to be nonchalant.

“Yeah. Today. December 19th,”

“I… may have been a little late this morning,”

“A little? You basically missed half of first period,” Zach turned around to immediately be face to face with Magenta, “You ok?”

“I mean… I, uh, had one of my… uh… episodes. Had to get to the nurses’ for a bit. But it’s all good. All good,” He had inwardly cringed at using his panic attacks as an excuse, that was a lowball thing to do. Outwardly, Zach feigned a smile, trying really hard maybe more for his own benefit rather than Magenta’s because he could tell that he wasn’t pulling it off. 

“Zach, that slip said you were at the Principal's office,” 

He was full on sweating now, “Oh that- um… listen, Maj-”  
  


“Fuck, is it Dwayne again?” Magenta’s face scrunched up in disgust, rattling off: “I swear to God, Powers let that asshole off so easy. Suspension? How about expulsion? Because they in no way should let a dick like that graduate and become a _Hero_ -”

“-Maj-” 

“You know what, I’m fucking glad that the likes of Lash and Speed are pretty much lowkey incarcerated right now. I wouldn’t be able to stomach seeing _them_ graduate and gearing up to ‘save’ the world-”

“-I, uh, need to tell you-,” 

“Like it’s the equivalent of seeing that girl in your school, you know that never partakes in P.E and bullies the shit out of the other girls, studying to be a nurse. I never understood that! I swear if he gives you anymore trouble, me and the others are gonna take care of it-”

_“ARGHH!_ ” Zach let out a frustrated scream that scared the both of them. It ushered a small window of silence afterwards that a string of words flew out of his mouth before Magenta could interrupt him, and before he lost the nerve. 

_Powersknowsaboutyoucuttingclass!_ ”

The shapeshifter couldn’t decipher what had just been yelled out, “What?”

The blonde took a deep breath before reiterating, much slower this time with a slight quiver in his voice, “Powers knows about you cutting class…’

“Wait, _what?!_ ”

Magenta’s face registered as pure shock. She gripped her forehead and she had to sit down. Zach had to look away, he knew that the news was gonna rattle her and he didn’t want to be the one to tell her. But, he had found out this week that the Math robots got an early Christmas upgrade when, yesterday, after Magenta had made her escape to get home to her family, their teacher noted her absence at the end of class time. 

“The teacher marked it down, I tried talking to him, but… I made it worse,”

Zach had tried to cover for her, saying that she had gone to the bathroom, but the robot indeed had gotten smarter and noted the hall pass still hanging by the door. He even had tried to stay behind after class, nearly making him miss the bus, to try and convince him that she was there and she hadn’t been missing class, which made Mr. Calc pore over past footage and detected all the other incidents where she had sneaked out. Well, then cue Zach face palming himself for inadvertently making him check. 

“You’re telling me this now?!” Magenta crossed her arms“ This happened yesterday- Fuck!” She marched to the trash can, pointing to the remnants of the late slip, “Then what was this then? Why were you in Powers’ office, huh?”

_Here comes the nail in the coffin._

“She knew about all the times you cut class. She knew. She was gonna expel you. So… I went there this morning… to plead your case….,” he exhaled, “I had to tell her about your commitment to your family-”  
  


Magenta was on him in a second, gripping at his shirt with unbridled anger in her eyes, “ _That’s not your- your thing to tell!_ ” she blinked. Zach could see tears were forming in her eyes as she barely got through the sentence, “I-I can’t believe you!”

He gently tried to pry her hands off of him, all the while trying to push the matter forward. Might as well, “You were gonna get expelled. What was I supposed to do?”

“Let me get expelled! We both know how that would make things much easier- I wouldn’t have to hitchike on a fucking flying garbage truck,”

“Try explaining that to your dad then? How are you gonna hide not going to school?” Magenta gaped at him, “Don’t give me that look, you would so do that! I was trying to help you!” Why couldn’t she see that? He did it to protect her. He knew that she wanted to keep things under wraps but this was an extenuating circumstance!

“You help me when I ask you to. If I wanted you to completely obliterate my home life then I would have asked!” She was referring to the high chance of Powers calling her dad and revealing what Magenta had spent the last few months keeping from him. 

“I’m sorry!” He yelled, getting increasingly defensive, “Maybe this all could have been avoided if you told your dad in the first place! He-he could have figured something out. No amount of risking your grades- _your life_ for all of this!” 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Magenta had to step away from him as if she couldn’t be in the same room as him anymore. She gravitated towards the bed, grabbing her backpack and stuffing her things back inside, “God, Zach. Do you take some sick pleasure at trying to be my savior, my white, glowing knight all the fucking time?” 

“What? No!”

“You’ve been patient with me. More than most people in my life. I’ll give you that. But let’s be honest, you’re just waiting for me to ‘come around’. As if, the way I’ve been living my life is just wrong compared to how you live yours. I’m not open. Or sociable. Or affectionate all the time. So stop expecting that one day I would be and treat as though every time I tried to be as some sort of ‘progress’,”

“I’m not asking for you to be any of those things,” he insisted, “But what I’m asking is for you to be straight up with me.” 

“Well _you_ weren’t with _me_ ! _You_ couldn’t be honest with _me_!”

“Hey, I was going to tell you alright!” All of the bitterness from earlier in the night bubbling up into his words, “But if you think I take sick pleasure at playing hero then _you_ need to be honest with yourself.”

“About what?”

“That you love, just love, making me look stupid everytime I get too close,” There he said it. And when all the shapeshifter could do was glower at him, he went off:

“You can’t help but launch this mental warfare in any conversation and you know, you know- that I’m too naive to defend myself every single time. I thought we were friends. I thought we were…” his voice cracked and he had to take a breath, “I can’t think of a single time when I’m with my friends and that I had to choose my words so carefully, worried that they would be used against me!”

It had been true since the day they met, her putting him at arm’s length and it didn’t bother him before but it was just getting ridiculous at this point. After all they had been through together these past months, that she would think so lowly of him, that she thought he was that stupid to figure out what she was doing to him to keep herself in tact. And he was absolutely sick of it.

Magenta belted out a harsh laugh, “Oh, how about I help you out then? Just like you were trying to ‘help’ me, my fucking hero-”

“-Just because I thought you shouldn’t be expelled, my bad-

“-And let’s just not even talk anymore-”

“-I am not apologizing for trying to do the right thing-”

“-You know what?” she yelled through their overlapping words, “Just because you weren’t cut out for being a ‘Hero’ doesn’t mean you have to appoint yourself as mine!”

Zach stepped back, stunned. Magenta was staring back at him, resolute in what she had said. He searched for any form of regret in her eyes, in her stance- but nothing. She wanted it to hurt him. The tightness he had carried during their screaming match fell away but just for a moment. 

He wasn’t sure what possessed him to do what he did next, but he began to laugh. Bitterly. That was all he knew how to do whenever he became the butt of the joke, he had concluded. And she was well aware how many times he had been the joke- of the school, of their friend group, of his fucking family. Always the fool but never the hero. 

He knew deep down that the sudden laughing wasn’t going to unnerve Magenta- nothing would. But oh he so badly wanted to, to spite her, to let her know how it felt, so he settled for dealing the final, crushing blow. 

“Oh my god,” he got out after his last mirthless laugh, “At least I’m not someone who expects the worst out of people and wonders why they’re alone.” 

That seemed to have jar Magenta out of her self-righteous stupor because they both stood there in silence. And when Zach watched her fiery gaze morph into one just utter betrayal, mouth slightly agape in disbelief on what she had just heard, he knew it was done. Whatever relationship they had forged for the past few months was over.

“You know what? J-Just go. Just go, Magenta. I can’t deal with this anymore,” 

Magenta sniffled, but still managed to jutt her chin at him with gusto, “Gladly!” She swiped her jacket and her messenger bag and booked it for the stairs, slamming his door and fled from his house, not even considering using the window. 

He had surprised himself. He didn’t think he could have been so ruthless, but he was tired of being Magenta’s emotional punching bag. How dare she say that to him? That everything he had done for her was to boast his own ego? How lowly did she think of him? He had done the right thing. He had to stand up for himself just this once. 

Well at least he thought he did. 

He plopped onto his chair, his Gorillaz stream still blasting away, 2-D’s voice burrowing into his ears and into his mind. The satisfaction at getting the final word faded away and regret began to fester.

The day had started off good, he had been doing the right thing, right? This had been for her. To keep her at Sky High, to keep her in his life. But what good was it now? He had made sure that she wouldn’t want anything to do with him now.

The tears spilled out not at the hurt that Magenta threw his way, but more on the hurt he threw her way. Something ugly came out of him tonight… something so awful and now he wasn’t sure how he could fix it. Did he want to fix it? After everything she had put him through? After everything she had said? 

She left him with all this stuff to figure out. All the shit for their diorama was still there. He quickly moved it, dumping the rest of the supplies onto the floor in a rage. He reached for his sheets when he discovered a purple composition book tangled up in his blanket. 

Oh the fucking irony. The thing that started it all. He wished she didn’t leave this behind the first time, so maybe this wouldn’t happen, his life wouldn’t have gotten more complicated than it already was and he wouldn’t have to feel this myriad of messy feelings.

He chucked the book across the room and collapsed onto his bed, sobbing into his pillows. He was tired. So fucking tired. He ended up turning in for an early night, maybe hoping that it was all a bad dream and he could hopefully wake up to something better. The last thing he remembered was Gorillaz crooning out into the night: 

_Dreams are bad, our heads are mad_

_love the girl_

_But God only knows it's_

_Getting hard to see the sun coming through_

_I love you..._

_But what are we going to do?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song:
> 
> Every Planet We Reach is Dead- Gorillaz


End file.
